High Society in New Orleans
by egurdi1
Summary: What if Rory lived in New Orleans and met Logan, Finn, Colin, and Stephanie while they were there for Mardi Gras. Majority of the characters are the same, with some added. It's just something that's been in my head for a little while.
1. Tank Tops and Mini Skirts in February

"I just don't understand why we've never been here before." Finn asked the group as they walked through the thick crowds of people on the street.

"And we keep telling you, we never saw the attraction of humidity and annoying accents" Colin answered.

"But why would we not see the attraction of tank tops and mini skirts in February? That seems like enough of an attraction for me to go anywhere."

"And I've got to admit, there is something extremely sexy about how that guy stopped in his truck yesterday and asked me if I was lost. Annoying accent to you, sexy bedroom voice to me," Stephanie added as Colin grimaced in remembrance of the flirting that took place the day before.

"Well I'm with Finn. I say that we make this an annual trip, even if it's just for this weekend." Logan said as he looked around.

They had been in New Orleans for just over 2 months and he just could not get over it. No one ever thought of venturing down south to get away from Hartford unless it was to go to the beach and he was realizing what a mistake this was. There was something about the relaxing pace everyone seemed to be on in New Orleans. And the girls, the girls were definitely something else. The temperature could go from 40 degrees to 75 in two days, and the women were always dressed appropriately. He assumed they got used to showing so much skin in the summer and saw no reason to cover up when it wasn't cold outside, even if it was mid-winter. He was not going to be the one to object, either. Even being in New Orleans for the past couple of months, none of them were prepared for what they had stumbled into this weekend. Of course they had heard about Mardi Gras quite frequently during their stay, but they figured that people were just overreacting. After all, they had been to many great parties and didn't see the need to befriend strangers on the street in an effort to have a good time.

Nevertheless, they were shocked to look out of their rented house the past few nights to see people lining the streets to watch the parades roll by and they were more shocked when that morning they found chairs, blankets, and ladders lining the street. Steph, always the personable one, had gone to the street and asked one of the women why they were camped out and blaring music on our front lawn at 5 in the morning and the response she got astounded her. _'Morning, sweetheart. Don't you know the supercrews are riding tonight? We'll be set up here until Tuesday afternoon, hope yall don't mind. This is our spot, but that house usually isn't occupied. Yall are more than welcome to join us if you want, as long as we can use your bathroom or something in return. You want something to eat? We've got eggs, bacon, and grits. I bet if you smiled real pretty someone would go get you a biscuit if you really wanted one, though'._

Steph had come back into the house demanding to know what a supercrew was, why these people weren't planning on leaving for 4 days, what we were welcome to join them in doing, and why they wanted to use our bathroom. The boys really didn't have an answer for any of her questions and the four of them decided to sleep a little while longer before they had to deal with the crazy people that were outside.


	2. Boys Cause Problems Sometimes

"Please tell me you woke Kinley up on time and we're not going to be waiting here for another hour. Her mother is going to kill us if we're late," Rory said to one of her roommates as she walked back into their house from getting coffee. She had woken up and walked down the street for coffee in an effort to get her two best friends moving and out of their house before everything got out of hand. However, looking around, something was definitely wrong. Kinley was already downstairs at the table reading the newspaper but her other best friend, Addie, was not around.

"No no no no no. This cannot be happening. Where is she, Kinley? Your mom is going to kill us. Her mom is going to kill us. What time did she get in and where was she?"

"You know, I kinda resent the fact that you think I'm the one who's always making yall late. I was fixing to call you to tell you that she is going to require some major help when you walked in. And I don't know what time she got in, but I'm pretty sure she was with Jacob last night. Even though Colt picked her up."

"What happened to John Halpin?"

"Who knows. You know how she is. All I know is that tonight is going to be really awkward."

Rory looked at her best friend for a minute. Something was off. She had known Kinley since they were in diapers; they grew up together. Kinley was John Halpin's sister and they were best friends. He was only a year and a half older than the girls so they had the same group of friends, there was no way to avoid it. Her, Kinley, and Addie were always together but each was so distinctly different. Kinley was never this calm when talking about Addie's tendencies of switching boys every other night. They all knew nothing serious ever happened; Addie just liked to have a little fun. But she really liked John Halpin so she couldn't help but wonder what had happened. She really didn't have time to overanalyze things today, though. Her mom had called her three times on her way back from getting coffee asking if the girls were on their way to the hotel and if they boys were meeting them there. She would have to deal with Kinley later.

Making her way upstairs, Rory called here mom and let her know what was going on. Her mom promised she would try to distract everyone else from noticing that they weren't there yet but couldn't make any promises. Her mom was something else. She had gotten pregnant as a junior in high school married her dad a few years later. Kinley and Addie's parents weren't much older, making the three families extremely close. The three girls had grown up in New Orleans and loved every minute of it. They had their own close knit group of friends and found it very hard to let other people in. Other people just didn't understand everything they had to deal with. They were the debutantes of New Orleans society and everyone could tell. Rory loved her life, she really did, but there were times when she wished she could give it up and just enjoy her city like the other kids she went to school with. It would be hard to do that tonight and her mom, Lorelai, felt bad for the girls. People from all around the world came to New Orleans for this weekend. They wanted to see Endymion roll through the streets of New Orleans. It was an event like no other, and the girls wanted to experience it like the locals, for once. Every year, they were forced to sit in the Superdome at the end of the parade and watch it from there. The Extravaganza, as the locals refer to it, is truly amazing, and normally the girls didn't mind attending. However, this year was different. It was their first year at Tulane and their friends from school had made plans all over the city that they couldn't go to because of their families. Lorelai had made them a deal, though. If they got to the hotel in the morning and showed interest in getting ready for the night with their families, she would cover for them while they snuck off to catch the parade at the very beginning of the route with their friends. She knew that it would take a good 5 or 6 hours for the parade to get from the beginning to the end and she knew the girls would have plenty of time to get back to the hotel room to get ready.

Rory knocked on the door before letting herself in and walking into Addie's bathroom. She took in the scene in front of her and knew that it was not good.

"Hey love, what's going on? You know we're supposed to leave in 10 minutes right?" Rory asked her as she started plugging in the hair straightener and pulling out makeup she knew Addie would need. "You want to tell me what happened with John Halpin last night?"

"It's nothing. Really, it's not big deal. It's just…well…we were driving around yesterday by City Park and he stopped when we saw these kids looking around. They looked at us like we were crazy. Just stopping next to them, they probably thought we were kidnapping them or something. Well after they didn't say anything, he said hey and asked if they needed directions. The girl that was with the three guys couldn't stop staring at him. It was ridiculous. He's really not that cute, you know? Anyway he gave them directions to The Fly. The Fly, Ror! We don't let tourists go to our spots, what is he thinking? We didn't really talk much after that. He just brought me home when I said I wasn't hungry. He liked her. I could tell he did. She said ten words to him and he liked her. He's known me his whole life and nothing. I don't get it."

Rory listened as her friend told the story, all the while running the straightener through her hair and packing a bag for her. She knew she liked their friend, but also knew that John Halpin had no idea. She refused to tell him or act like anything more than a friend, so they really were at an impasse. But she hated seeing her so torn up because he had stopped and given a group of people directions, he always did that.

"You know, if you would just- -"

"No, I'm not doing it. I've told yall a million times. I am not telling him anything."

"I know, Ad, it's just that he doesn't even know you're upset," Rory tried to tell her again.

"It's not happening. I don't care."

"Okay," Rory said, even though it was obvious that she did care. A lot. "Okay you're all ready except for makeup. Why don't you either put it on in the car or at the hotel. You can tell your mom you left your bag in my car and didn't get it out 'til this morning."

"Okay, thanks Ror."

"Anytime, Addie. I just think that you- -"

"No way. Kinley! Let's go!"

Rory watched as her friend left the house and got into the car. She turned to their other roommate to fill her in and saw she had filled her coffee cup again. "Thank you so much," she told her. "So I got the info. John Halpin stopped and flirted with a tourist girl yesterday and told her and her group directions to The Fly. Of course he has no clue Addie is upset about this and she has no intention of letting him know…so, tonight should be fun."

"Stop worrying, Rory. It'll be fine. And anyway, we're sneaking away before the extravaganza. That's what you should be looking forward to," Kinley told her as she walked out the front door. "Oh yea. Ror? You're driving."


	3. Agreeing With Finn

**AN: Hi. So, here's the thing...my name's Emily and I've never written anything before besides the papers I had to write for English classes throughout high school. I've been in college for a few years now and still have yet to write a paper. I'm lucky, I know. Point of the matter is that I know it's not all that great. The idea in my head is far superior to the one I've managed to get down on paper. I also tend to ramble, so it can be somewhat long-winded. I apologize for that, I'm working on it. **

"Rory! Oh my goodness, your parents are amazing. I can't believe they are doing this for us."

"Oh man, I know. Did you see the look on my dad's face when your mom came around the corner? I don't think I've ever seen him look so scared in my life. He looked terrified of your mom, Kinley."

"I know, I know. I've been telling yall she can be downright scary sometimes for years. Yall never believe me," Kinley reminded them. "Do we know where we're going? I have to use the bathroom so bad."

"Yea, I know where the group is," Addie finally spoke up. "I just didn't want to say because it's pretty far….and well….Rory isn't going to like having to walk a few miles just to go see our friends. And I'm not sure where you're going to find a bathroom…you better make some friends."

"WAIT. Miles? Miles! You're kidding. You have to be kidding. Miles?!"

"Aw come on, Ror. Me and Kinley will drag you if we have to. Just remember it's either this or sit in a room with the society moms listening to them talk about how you and Jackson are the cutest couple ever."

Addie looked back at her friend after saying this and laughed at her face. Everyone knew that Rory's grandparents were dying for her to start dating Jackson St. Martin. She also knew that the table they were at tonight was still trying to be filled, and hoped that they didn't get stuck entertaining Jackson and his ridiculous friends. Personally, Addie knew that Rory was dying to get out of New Orleans. Not that she didn't like the city, she loved it, but there was no way for her to escape her last name. Everyone knew who her family was and she hated it. It was the same for all of them, but it bothered Rory the most. All of the other girls we hung out with were satisfied with being moms and settling down right after college, it's how life was in the south and definitely in the society world they lived in. Rory wanted more than that, she just wasn't sure how she was going to get out of it.

* * *

"Bloody hell this is amazing! "

Logan knew that agreeing with Finn was always a dangerous thing, but he had to. There were no words that could come close to describing New Orleans the Saturday before Mardi Gras. It was beyond amazing. He had decided that it was just a different breed of people down here. They were so…nice. Colin was so relaxed that it was frightening and Steph was getting hit on by so many drunken guys, but couldn't be mad because every one of them was a 'sweetheart', or so she said.

After they had woken up for the second time that day, they decided to stay around their house for whenever the supercrew thing decided to show up. They had walked up and down their block a few times and figured it was a pretty good one. It seemed that wherever they had coincidentally rented a house was an area full of local, college kids. Stephanie was walking back to their house to meet the guys and get a drink when she saw three girls engaged in a lively and seemingly important conversation. She made her way over discreetly seeing if she could hear what they were talking about and couldn't help but laugh to herself when she heard what they were saying—the girl sounded exactly like her.

"Kinley…why couldn't you have done this before we left the hotel? We are never going to find them and then we will be getting yelled at tonight for no reason."

"I was trying to run away from my mother, that's why! She scares me, sometimes. I love her, I do, but it's times like these when I think she needs to step away from the hair spray and realize how crazy she really is. And I really don't care if we meet them or not. I have to use the bathroom. We need to find one. I will pay anyone $500 dollars to use their bathroom and I'm so not kidding."

"I can't believe this. We're trying to finally meet up with other people and you need to-"

"Stop. Right now," Stephanie listened as the third girl cut the other two off, "Addie, calm down…we'll find everyone, I promise. Kinley, seriously, this is ridiculous. Let's just ask around, see if someone is staying in one of these houses that wouldn't mind. And you're not paying anyone $500 to use a bathroom."

"You think they'd want $1,000?"

Steph figured she could help these girls, they seemed like a fun group. Laughing, she approached the group of girls and tried to speak to the third girl, she seemed to be the most level headed of the group.

"Hi, sorry for listening in, but do you girls need to use a bathroom? We're staying at that house…if you wanted to come in," Steph offered.

"Oh my goodness, seriously? You are amazing! Thank you! I'm Rory. This is Addie and Kinley. Thank you so much."

"Stephanie, but call me Steph, and it's really not a problem. Come on, it's me and my three guy friends. Don't be offended by anything Finn says," Steph explained as they climbed the stairs to their house.

"Boys! We have company!" Steph called out once they walked inside.

The girls heard two distinct groans and a laugh from somewhere deep in the house. They started walking in that direction before Steph remembered the reason they were there and told Kinley where the bathroom was.

"Stephanie. I thought we told you that it wasn't good to bring stray people in. Haven't we had this talk," asked a voice that became louder as they walked into the kitchen.

"Oh, shut up, Colin. You'll like these stray people. See? Pretty girls." Steph turned around and brought Rory and Addie into the kitchen after seeing the former blush at her comment. The boys looked up when the two girls mumbled greetings and Finn immediately walked over to say hello.

"Thank you so much, Steph," Kinley said as she made her way into the room, "you have no idea how much I owe you. Do you want the 500 bucks? Wait, no. I said a grand, right?"

Rory saw Addie roll her eyes, the three boys eyes widen, and Steph throw her head back in laughter as she answered, "Seriously, you're not paying me for letting you use the bathroom."

"Wait," the brunette from before-Colin, Rory noticed- interrupted, "You just offered to pay her a thousand dollars for letting you use the bathroom?"

"I really had to use the bathroom," she explained with a shrug, "I'm Kinley, by the way."

"Colin. And the blonde one here is Logan, and the one with the accent is Finn. But we haven't met your other two friends yet."

"Oh. Don't let anyone know you saw them being rude. This is Addie and the quiet one back there is Rory. Wait until she disagrees with something you say…she gets argumentative real fast."

"It's nice to meet you girls, and we won't tell anyone you were being rude. But argumentative? I like argumentative," Logan answered, looking at Rory.

They were all looking at her now, Rory realized. They were waiting for her to say something. Right as she opened her mouth to deny her argumentative nature, her phone vibrated. Whoever this was had definitely saved her from an awkward moment.

"It's John Halpin," she told the other two girls, "I'll just…I'll be right back."

Logan stared at the spot in the room she just left. He had known that there was something special about these New Orleans girls but these three were even more than that. All three of the girls were stunning. Steph would love to hang out with them, instead of with us three guys. She hates being the only girl all the time. He could practically see her thinking the same thing while they waited for Rory to come back in the room.

"So we have a problem," Rory said walking back into the kitchen.

"Yea? What's that?"

"Well, Addie…it seems as though John Halpin was a little bit distracted last night because he got a call from Colt saying you had ditched him to go out with Jacob and John Halpin couldn't understand why you made him drop you off to go out with Jacob in the first place. However, that's not the problem. He forgot his tux Baton Rouge. So he has about 12 hours to find a tux. And I gave him the address here so he could meet us, I hope that's okay…" Rory trailed off, directing the last part of the question towards Steph who nodded in response.

"Crap. Stupid boy. What'd my mom say when she found out?" Kinley asked.

"Ah, next part of the problem. When he called your mom, she was slightly preoccupied because her precious daughter and her horrible friends had just left the hotel without telling anyone where they were going."

"So he hung up on her mid-conversation?"

"Exactly."

"Wait. So hold on. Where are you guys going that he needs a tux?" Steph wanted to know.

"Oh well it's this thing. It's called the Endymion Extravaganza. The parade ends by rolling into the Superdome where they have a few bands that play until around 5 or 6 the next morning. It's formal, so he needs a tux. Wait, do yall want to come with us?" Addie offered.

"Yall aren't from here, are yall?" Rory finally spoke up and everyone in the room turned to look at her. Colin laughed in response to her question and she replied, "Yea, that's what I figured. Yall should really come with us, if yall didn't have anything else planned. It's a lot of fun. We can take yall with us when we go with Kinley's brother to get him a new tux. We'd pay for it all, it's not a problem."

Logan was staring at her again. Not only because it was the longest group of words he had heard her say at once, but in disbelief because she thought she'd be buying them tuxes.

"I don't think you'll have to buy any of us a tux," he told her.

"Oh," she started, "we were just offering because we have the other half of the table to fill and don't want to get stuck by some horrible people. But it's okay. We were just wondering."

"Oh so we were just your back up so you don't get stuck with bad people?" Logan countered.

"No! Of course not. I just figured yall might be interested since yall aren't from here. But if yall have plans it's not—oh your brother must be here, Kinley, I'll go meet him."

Logan watched her check her phone as it rang and then walk out of the kitchen for the second time and turned around when he heard one of her friends laughing. He looked at her for a few seconds before she answered his gaze.

"No one ever talks to her like that," Addie clarified.

"What do you mean?" he asked her.

"I don't know…"

"She just too much of…well I don't know…she's too much of a Hayden for anyone to really feel comfortable with her unless they're us." Kinley finished for her friend, "But seriously, yall really should come tonight. It won't be until 11 or so and she wasn't kidding we really will pay for the tuxes and anything else yall would need."

"Oh! Wow. You weren't even talking about not going, were you Logan? No, Kinley. I think the part of the invite he was protesting to was letting you girls pay for his tux" Steph tried to explain to the girls. "He would definitely not let that happen and neither would Colin or Finn. Where is Finn, by the way?"

"He walked out a few minutes ago, and yes that is exactly what I meant," Logan said.

"Oh, well we couldn't let yall do that," Kinley stated. "Oh and Steph, we'll need to get you a dress, too. We can stop by our house and see if you like any of ours—between the three of us, we have so many—but if not, we'll just buy you a new one. "

"You girls are not buying any of us tuxes. That is the last I'll hear about it."

"But so that means yall will come with us?" Addie asked the group.

Logan looked to Colin who shrugged his indifference and at Steph who looked extremely excited to be included in these girls' plans for the night and just nodded. Steph had been talking about going out with the locals for a few weeks and he was glad she was making friends. He was looking forward to this event, even if the girls made it seem like a society event. He always was able to handle them and he figured that the focus would not be on him for once.

Steph had been rambling on about shoes and make up with the other girls for a few minutes when she froze. Logan and Colin turned to see what had happened and saw that Rory had walked back into the kitchen, this time with the guy who had stopped and given them directions the day before in tow. Steph watched as he kissed the other two girls on their cheeks and told them they looked beautiful before settling in next to his sister with his arm around her waist.

"Hey guys, this is John Halpin…Kinley's older brother." Rory finally broke the silence. "This is Logan, Colin, and Steph. There was another guy, but I don't know where he went."

"Hey man. Nice to meet you, " Logan told the guy, "you gave us directions to a park yesterday, remember?"

Rory couldn't help herself from looking back and forth between Logan and Steph, whose eyes were locked with John Halpin. When she looked back at Logan, he smirked at her and nodded his head between the two of them. Rory felt herself blush and saw that caused Logan's smirk to grow. She couldn't stop thinking about how he had spoken to her, like she wasn't special because of who she was—just a girl he was talking to, and she liked that. Between that and whatever this staring thing was with John Halpin and Steph, Rory knew that she was going to have a lot of fun at the extravaganza.


	4. Hartford and Newspaper Articles

"Okay so now I really feel bad. You girls were trying to escape from your parents for one day and we've ruined that. I know how hard it is to escape from parents. I feel really bad."

Stephanie hadn't stopped rambling on about how badly she felt since they decided to walk back to the girls' house and plan their day from there. Rory was definitely amused. She figured that Steph must be freaking out about running into John Halpin again and she could definitely tell that John Halpin was. She had made about 10 phone calls to their friends apologizing and telling everyone that the four of them would not be meeting up with their friends for the parade. She was hanging up with someone and dialing her mom's phone number when she heard Kinley ask the group where they were from. She hung back a little bit so she could hear her mom over their conversation but heard Stephanie grab on to that new topic and begin to ramble about wherever they live. She was waiting on her mom to pick up the phone when she heard John Halpin call out to her.

"Hey Ror"

"Hm?"

"You heard where they're from?"

"No, where?" By this time she had ended the call with her mom resigned that she'd have to wait to tell her the change of plans.

"Hartford. As in Connecticut."

"I'm sorry, love, but is there a reason why everyone finds it funny we live in Hartford?" Finn interrupted the conversation.

"Hartford, huh? That's interesting," Rory answered John Halpin while ignoring Finn's question.

No one else said anything as the four Yalies kept looking back and Rory who was trying to get her mom on the phone again. She was not paying attention to anything besides her phone and almost walked into numerous people.

"So what's the big deal with you and Hartford," Logan finally asked, laughing, he put his arm around her waist when he saw her jump at his sudden proximity. "You're just in your own little world, aren't you?"

Rory felt herself blushing at his smirk and then realized he had his arm around her. It didn't feel weird, she realized. That was weird. Shouldn't she be uncomfortable with some guy she just met putting his arm around her waist? _'He's just being nice, just nice,' _she was telling herself, _'I probably would have fallen if it weren't for his arm. Hm, he's still looking at me. That smirk of his is getting bigger. What does he want. Crap. He asked me a question.'_

"Oh," she tried to start and had to clear her throat, "my grandparents live in Hartford. We go up there for Christmas every other year."

"You hear that guys, Rory here has spent quality time in Hartford," Logan called to his three friends who were walking up the stairs into the girls' house. None of them turned around and he figured that one of the girls had filled them in on the information. He went to ask her who exactly her grandparents were, but when he looked down, she was on her phone again. Sighing, he dropped his arm and took the phone out of her hands, ending her call.

"Hey!" she protested, trying to grab the phone, "Give that back."

"I think I'll hold onto it. I'm just trying to have a conversation with you about my little town of Hartford Connecticut. From what I've been told, your mom is awesome and is not going to have a problem with us occupying four empty seats, calm down."

"Who told you--," She just shook her head and looked around for the culprit. Doing this, she realized that they were the only two still on the porch and everyone else had gone inside. "Well come on, let's go see if Steph wants to wear a dress we have."

She looked back at him as he stood there. She was waiting for him to climb up the four steps into the house, but he wasn't moving. He was irritating her, but he wasn't moving. "Are you coming?" She finally asked. She heard his low laugh and he nodded and began walking up the steps.

"Kinley?" She yelled out once she was inside, waiting for a response so she would know which bedroom the group had migrated into. When she got no answer, just rustling above her head, she knew exactly where they were.

"Come on, looks like they decided to go through my closet first," she told him and she started towards the stairs.

"Wow. I've known you a few hours and already have an invitation to your bedroom. That's good even for me," he responded and couldn't help but laugh at the look of horror on her face when she turned around. She just shook her head walked up the stairs so he followed her.

He had been shocked when he walked into their house. First of all, they were three 20 year old girls living in a house, but more so because their house truly felt like a home. He saw notes on a corkboard in the hallway, blankets that hadn't been picked up on the sofa, and a book that lay open on the coffee table. Their house looked very lived in and comfortable, like they didn't mind just hanging out around the house if they were bored. Their house was messy, but clean. It was apparent that they used the things in this house. This wasn't how his friend's apartments were. His friends' apartments were clean, almost sterile. The maid service came two or three times a week. His friends and him barely ever spent time in their apartments, using it only as a place to sleep or bring dates. They never spent time hanging out in their apartments, they were always off doing something, and it seemed that these girls couldn't be more different. He liked it, he liked that they had a reason to come home at the end of the day instead of just the location of their bed. He followed Rory up the stairs and was almost knocked off his feet when he entered her room.

He was in awe, there was no other word. The first thing that hit him was the mirror. Half of the wall next to her close was a mirror, a floor to ceiling mirror, but that wasn't the strange part. The amusing part of the mirror was the notes that were written on one side of it in dry erase marker. He had never seen anyone write on a mirror like that. The next thing that got him, the most important thing, were the pictures. She had pictures everywhere—all over her desk, her walls, her window sill. He had never seen so many pictures in a small space. It looked like she had pictures of everyone she knew. She had pictures in front of the Christmas tree and she had pictures at the lunch table from high school. He looked more intently at the pictures from their high school days and realized that there was not one guy in any of the pictures. He thought this was odd. The most intriguing thing about her room, though, was the scent. There was a smell of flowers. It was a subtle scent, not overwhelming at all. It was just enough to make you wonder where the smell is coming from and how is it present. At that thought, he looked around to check, but there weren't any. He had noticed that she had smelled like flowers and vanilla when he was walking next to her and had assumed it was her hair, but everything in her room smelled like flowers. It was amazing. When he looked up, he caught Addie watching him.

"You can sit down, you know" Addie told him.

He looked around and noticed that everyone else was sitting either on her bed or in the chairs she had in the room. He walked over to sit next to her on the bed and picked up the book that was lying on the nightstand.

"1 Dead in Attic?" He asked her, quirking an eyebrow.

"It's a hurricane book, it's awesome. Chris Rose writes for the Times-Picayune. Basically it's a collection of all of his articles from the days after the hurricane to a year and a half later. Rory likes to read certain articles every now and then," Addie explained.

This caught his attention. "Newspaper articles? She likes to read newspaper articles? That's not usually a favorite genre."

He definitely knew that. If there was one thing he could recite, was people's dwindling interest in newspaper articles. He had gotten so many speeches on it over the years, he felt that it was practically his fault that his entire generation did not enjoy newspapers. Here was a girl who bought a book of newspaper articles and read them often, not for a class she took one semester. She was something else. And her family was from Hartford. He had to find out more. His head snapped up in shock when he heard Addie answer his questions.

"She wants to be a journalist," she explained as she shrugged, "I don't know really. You would need to ask her why she reads it. It is a great book, though."

Well this was even better. A journalist! How perfect. He could definitely hold a conversation about journalism with someone who enjoyed the business, especially if they didn't know his connection to it. He was about to ask another question when he heard Finn gasp and Colin let out a low whistle. He turned to see what the commotion was about when Steph declare she found a dress. He had to agree with his friends, Steph was gorgeous, she always has been.

Colin heard one of the girls tell her they'd 'swing back' and pick it up before making their way to the hotel to get ready as he watched the other guy stare at Stephanie. It was different from the looks we usually saw guys give Steph, more respectful. As much as it killed him, he appreciated this guy.

"She's real pretty, isn't she," Colin said as he walked over to John Halpin.

"Beautiful," he replied as he visibly snapped out of a thought, "she's very beautiful. She's going to fit in perfectly with the other three, probably have the guys drooling over them and think it's funny."

"Yea, that does sound like Stephanie. So where are we going to get these tuxes?" He asked, directing the conversation away from Steph.

"Well there's a place on Carrolton that I go to from time to time. It's only 1:30 so knowing those three girls, we're not going straight to get our tuxes. Rory mentioned the other day that she was craving food from this place and her cravings are pretty strong, so we'll probably end up there first."

The mention of food brought the other two guys to the hallway where John Halpin and Colin were talking.

"What's this I hear? Food? From where?" Finn asked.

"Camellia Grill. Have yall been there yet?" John Halpin answered.

"No," Logan shook his head, "we're not too sure about the food you guys eat down here, we've been sticking with restaurant chains that we know of."

"Well this place definitely isn't a chain and it isn't a bit normal. But it's one of the best places you'll find."

"What place?" Addie asked walking out of Rory's room.

"Camellia Grill. We have to go down Carrolton anyway so I thought—"

"OH! Can we go?! Please!"- Rory interrupted him before he finished, just like he knew she would.

"Let's go," he told them, and lead the way out of the house.

"Oh! Can we go to Swiss after? Or Angelo Brocato? Oh! What about Gumbo Shop?"

"Rory. I know you can eat, but why don't you just order chili cheese fries at Camellia Grill instead of us going to a bakery and to get ice cream or gumbo. I don't even know what made you think of Gumbo Shop. Anyway, we need to get our tuxes and get back to the hotel." John Halpin told her.

"Fine, but I'm really hungry. We waited way too long to go to lunch."

"And I'm sure that you'll eat more than me and Addie combined," Kinley interjected.

"It's a gift that the Gilmore girls possess."

"I thought you said her last name was Hayden?" Logan directed the question at Kinley.

"Oh, sorry. I am. My mom's maiden name is Gilmore. Me and her were the Gilmore girls before her and my daddy got married," Rory explained to him.

They all heard a gasp and looked back at Steph who was walking next to John Halpin, in silence.

"What, Steph?" Colin asked.

"Richard and Emily, right? You said your grandparents lived in Hartford. They're Richard and Emily. They talk about their granddaughter in New Orleans all the time. I don't know how I could have missed it," Steph explained.

"Yea…um…well, that's me," Rory answered her, clearly uncomfortable.

They had stopped on the sidewalk and the four Yalies were watching Rory. Logan could tell how much she disliked that the information came out about who her grandparents were. He didn't really understand why. He had only met Richard and Emily in passing—they were his dad's friends—but they seemed like good people. But here she was, shifting back and forth on her feet and biting her lip. All because they knew her grandparents. Finn, of course, was the first one to interrupt the heavy silence.

"We love Richard and Emily! Richard has excellent taste in scotch. Very good taste indeed. Why do you look like you don't want us to know who your grandparents are, love?"

"People tend to treat me differently once they find out. But I guess not yall. If yall know them, then I guess out of everyone we could have befriended, we picked a group of society kids. How 'bout that, yall? The kind of people we try to run away from is who we run to," she said, directing the last part of her answer at her friends.

"As long as they're not New Orleans society, it's fine with me," Kinley said. "I've had enough of those people. We needed some newbies. Let's go, I'm starving."

They walked the rest of the way chatting about what the four of them had done since they got to New Orleans. Logan watched Rory the entire time. She seemed genuinely uneasy with her grandparents being important people in society and she honestly did not want to be treated differently because of it. Sure, him and his friends would like people to overlook their parents and their bank accounts, but they knew it was not a practical wish. That's why they stayed amongst themselves, never letting new people into their group of friends. He had barely had a conversation with her and he knew that he liked the way she thought about things. She didn't want special treatment and she wanted to be a journalist. This girl seemed like everything any of them had looked for, someone who would call them out on their indiscretions and didn't want them solely for their money. She had a passion that she was not above working for. Walking down the street, he realized that he needed to talk to her more. He was going to make a point of getting to know her and finding out what makes her tick. He wanted to know about her life and why her parents left Hartford. He wanted to be in some of the pictures in her room. He wanted her to know him, and that scared him. She was beautiful, interesting, obviously caring, among other things. He acknowledged that this girl definitely had all the qualities to bring one of them down and out of their playboy lifestyles. And he surely hadn't noticed Finn or Colin taking a special interest in her.


	5. Conversations With a Webster

She had always known that food allows people to open up and relieves tension. She had seen food work it's magic many times. However, she had to give food a hand on this occasion. It took two groups of strangers and enabled them to become fast friends. Rory watched as her best friends and her new friends told stories that she was sure only a few people had ever heard. They had gotten to know each other pretty well for such a short amount of time. The walk to the tuxedo shop would be much more relaxed and the conversation would be much more free flowing than the walk over to the restaurant.

They had been waiting in line for coffee for a few minutes when Rory felt her phone vibrate. She told her friends to make sure to order her the biggest coffee they had and moved away from the people to answer her phone. Her mom insisted on telling her everything that had happened that day since they left the hotel, and it was not a short story. She finally realized that she had been talking to her mom for close to 30 minutes and no one had come get her. She didn't have time to think about where her friends were and what they were up to when she was hearing about what their parents were up to at the moment. She finally managed to convince her mom she really had to go if she was going to get back to the hotel in time later that afternoon. After hanging up her phone, she turned around to meet her friends and walked right into a person who was standing right behind her. Startled, she tried to right herself before looking up and finding Logan looking down at her laughing.

"Whoa, hey there Rory."

"Logan, gosh. You scared me…make a noise or something. What are you doing here, anyway?

"The rest of the group kept on walking to the tuxedo shop. I volunteered to bring you this," he continued, handing her her coffee. "And I didn't think you should be over here all by yourself."

"Oh well now aren't you just the sweetest thing," she told him and laughed at his frown. "Not big on being sweet? Okay, let's go."

They turned around and started walking down the street again. They were walking in comfortable silence until Logan brought up what he had been thinking about since they were at the girls house earlier.

"So I saw the book on your bed. I asked Addie about it, but she said I'd have to pick your brain to get anything substantial out of my questions. Newspaper articles? I never thought I'd meet someone our age who would voluntarily read newspaper articles for pleasure."

"What's wrong with reading newspaper articles? I want to be a journalist. I like to read. I like knowing about different styles. What's it to you?"

"No, there's nothing—"

"Well then why are you acting like it's such a big deal for someone to read newspaper articles. Chris Rose is an amazing writer, I'll have you know."

"I didn't mean anything by—"

"And maybe people our age should spend more time reading newspaper articles…especially ones that have so much to do with the culture of certain places. People can learn a lot from reading. I don't have to justify my reading choices to you, you know."

"I never—"

"But even if I was going to justify myself, which I'm not, I wouldn't even have to do it. I'd just give you the book and tell you to read the first page. It justifies itself."

"Okay, okay. Wow, I get it. Argumentative."

"I am not argumentative."

"Fine, stubborn."

"You better watch it. I could walk aimlessly and leave you in the middle of City Park. Then what would you do. You'd be wandering around New Orleans for days."

"Alright, I've got it. Persuasive," he told her and laughed at her glare. "I like that you read newspaper articles. I find it…intriguing."

"Intriguing?"

"Fascinating? No?"

She shook her head and laughed at his attempts.

"Alluring? Still not working for you?"

"I don't see how reading the newspaper is in any way alluring."

"Ah, you're hard to please. But I like it. And it is alluring. It's compelling, exciting, appealing. Downright riveting."

"Are you related to the Websters?"

"Endearing."

"Ah, endearing I can work with."

"Well, as long as you can work with it. I do aim to please," he told her.

"Come on, we're here," she responded. "In you go, we only have about 30 minutes, I hope you know your measurements."

"Oh please. Do you think your friend is the first guy to ever forget his tux somewhere? I've done this last minute tux thing many many times. Of course I know my measurements, they've been ingrained into my head. "

"Yea, yea, yea…you just go tell the man over there. I'm going pick you out a vest."

Logan watched her walk into the side room, leaving him in front of a desk where no one was working. He laughed and shook his head when he was pretty sure he heard her call out _'Hey Mr. Phil, how're you doing?'_ to one of the workers. She was something. When he had volunteered to bring her the coffee her friend had ordered, he didn't know the others would just walk ahead leaving them by themselves, but he didn't mind one bit. They got along well he couldn't help but notice. He was surprised that she slipped into a conversation with him. She had monopolized it while she thought he was putting down her choice of reading material. He liked how she looked up at him while he spoke, giving him her undivided attention. He wasn't sure if he had ever gotten that look from someone. A look of respect that he knew was his to lose. He thought this was backwards. Usually, people earned respect. With her, he already had it, for some reason. He was almost positive it was because she expected the best from people. He would have to get used to that.

He turned around when he heard someone clear their throat. A man was back at the desk and Logan gave him his measurements and asked if he would be able to buy shoes along with the tux. After the man assured him that he would, he lead him to a dressing room and went look for the sizes that Logan needed. He heard Rory walking around the room talking –on the phone, he assumed—and couldn't help laughing at her side of the conversation.

"_Masks or tigers, what do you think? Really? No way…I think masks. Don't worry about it, I figured yall had gotten a call from one of the moms and needed to get over there fast. Can you grab my book? No, not that one…the one on my desk. It's blue. No, it's not bad at all. He's funny, actually. I mean, we talked about my book and wait..why? Okay, we'll be over there in a little while."_

The man had come back with the tuxedo for Logan to try on while he was listening to her talk to one of her friends. He had gotten dressed and was waiting on the vest but she didn't seem to be bringing it to him anytime soon.

"Hey Rory, do you have that vest?" he called out to her once he walked out of the dressing room.

"Yep, here you go," she said, handing him the vest.

"This has things on it."

"They're masks," she said as if it were the most normal thing in the world. He just stared at the proffered vest.

"Why do you want me to wear masks on my vest? What ever happened to black? Or maybe even silver, for that matter?"

"You don't wear a plain vest to this. That would be boring. Do you want to be boring? No, you don't. Masks it is."

He still stared at the vest. He had never worn one of these 'festive' vests. He didn't need to call extra attention to himself. He was in a bit of disbelief when he kept looking at her and she just stared back. He seriously thought she had been joking but it didn't look like she was wavering one bit. He sighed when she shook the vest at him again and he took it from her.

"So I'm really wearing a vest with masks on it?"

"You sure are. Put your tie on, let me look at you."

"Bossy."

He knew she was watching him while he was putting on the vest and tie. He also had a pretty good idea that patience was not her forte. The look on her face was precisely the reason he tied his tie so slowly—he had never spent that much time on a tie before. When he finished, he held his arms out and laughed.

"How does it look?"

"I don't know…" she said. She walked over and began to play his tie while he just looked at her questioningly.

"What are you doing?"

"Adjusting your tie," she told him.

"It doesn't need to be adjusted, I tie a perfect tie. I learned how in 7th grade when I was in boarding school for the first time."

"They taught you how to tie a tie in boarding school?" She asked. He nodded. "That's weird. Anyway, the girl always adjusts the boy's tie. It's just a thing."

"So you're not actually doing anything."

"Of course not, just following the rules. Come on, get out of those clothes, we gotta go," she told him and walked away.

After Logan convinced her somehow that he would not be allowing her to pay for his tuxedo, Rory pulled him into a coffee shop insisting that she would need at least two more cups of coffee before dealing with her friends' parents. He was about to ask her what she meant by that when a few guys came up to talk to her. He watched her and noticed that she was noticeably different than she had been earlier in the afternoon. Her smile didn't meet her eyes and she was polite without mocking. He was surprised that he could tell she didn't want to be talking to these guys and when she shot him a panicked look, his thoughts were confirmed.

"Oh, I'm sorry yall…this is my friend Logan, he's in from out of town," he heard her tell the two guys.

"Logan who?" one of them asked her.

"Logan Huntzberger, nice to meet you," he told them and extended a hand for them to shake.

He held in a chuckle as he watched understanding wash over Rory's face but was impressed at how quickly she was able to compose herself. He had a feeling that she would be the one of the few people who had that reaction to him in the near future, and only because his dad didn't own newspapers in this part of the country. He figured she would know just because of how much she was invested into journalism.

"Sorry to leave so quickly, but Rory was just getting off the phone with her mom and we're needed at the hotel," he told the guys and got up to leave the coffee shop. He heard her telling them goodbye and to have a happy Mardi Gras and following after him. When she got to him on the sidewalk she just looked at him.

"Huntzberger? Really? And you're questioning my need to read newspaper articles? Shouldn't you be thanking me?" she told him as she walked up the sidewalk.

Was that the only reaction he was going to get? He did not understand this girl or her thought process one bit, but he liked that. He realized that she had not stopped walking and was a good 15 feet in front of him, and shaking his head, he ran to catch up with her.

"So, I've got to ask," he said once he caught up with her, "what's the story with your family? They left Hartford, I got that much, but why? And why New Orleans?"

"You really want to know?"

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't."

"It's kind of crazy."

"I just bought a tux so I could go to some thing tonight with 4 people I met a few hours ago. I can handle crazy, I think."

"Alright. So my mom and dad grew up in Hartford. They were together forever. They had been best friends since they were just a few years old and once they started dating, it was obvious that neither of them would be dating anyone other than each other. That was, of course, just fine with both sets of my grandparents. The two families became best friends and my grandmas were itching for my mom and dad to graduate high school so they could start planning their wedding. They were the perfect society couple, and they absolutely adored each other. The problem came at the end of their sophomore year of high school when my mom found out she was pregnant. Boy did the families hate each other then. My mom and dad stayed together, but everyone was so mad at my mom because she refused to get married. My mom is something; you'll meet her in a few minutes. She's amazing--absolutely beautiful, stubborn, smart, and she does this cool hair flip thing that my dad can't say no to. But anyway, my mom didn't want them to get married out of obligation; she wanted them to get married when they were ready and because they really wanted to. So, my mom dropped out of high school—she went back, eventually—and my dad stayed in and graduated. My dad was headed off to Princeton when my mom's dad gave him the option of working for him right out of high school and my dad took it. After a year or so of that, he proposed to my mom and they got married a few months later. So everything was good with my grandparents, my mom was finally a Hayden and I had parents who were married. The problem was that my mom and dad had never really bought into the whole high society world. They did it, yea, but they never really thrived in it and weren't entirely comfortable with the idea of me growing up there. My dad traveled a lot when I was really little and I remember he would always call me and my mom right before she put me to sleep so he could tell me goodnight. One of these trips was different and when he called, my mom started freaking out and she ran into my room and told me to throw some stuff in a bag because we were going on vacation. I was pretty confused because I definitely had school the next day. My mom got me dressed and we went to the airport and next thing I remember it was the next day and my mom was taking me shopping on Canal Street and asking me if I liked it here. We sat down with my dad that night and we talked about what it would mean for us to move here. My dad had met all kinds of people on his trips but when he came here for his meeting, he walked in and one of the guys had his daughter with him. It shocked my dad, but he liked how family was so important to this guy. He said then he saw how everyone in the meeting knew the little girl and before they started the meeting, they asked my dad if he had any kids and they talked about their families the entire morning. My dad mentioned how him and my mom were looking around for a place to move and they guys wanted to meet my mom and me, so he flew us out. After he told my mom that, my mom was sold. I think she liked how important their families were to them because she grew up in a place where family wasn't always put first."

He watched her as she told him the story, totally lost in her memories and her thoughts. He was pretty sure he would get along perfectly when he met her parents, as would his three friends who were apparently already at the hotel. He was pretty sure he understood better than she did exactly why her parents felt the need to get out - it was the same feeling that he got standing on his porch trying to summon the courage to ring the doorbell to his childhood home. He could see that she would fit in perfectly fine in the Hartford elite, but he also knew she could go her whole life without ever needing anything from that world. It was an interesting combination of personalities that she possessed.

He was startled when she not only stopped talking, but also stopped walking. They had been in the middle of crowds for a long time but she hadn't stopped once. She kept walking and talking, looking up at him every now and then to check if he was still listening. Every time she had looked up at him to see him watching her, she had blushed and looked back down and at her hands while she spoke.

"Is that the end of the story?" he asked her.

"Of course not. We have to deal with telling my grandparents and discovering that we'd just moved from Hartford society to New Orleans society and the drama of me transferring schools."

"Well why'd you stop?"

"Because we're here."

He looked around for the first time. They were standing in front of a very nice hotel that he hadn't seen during his stay in the city.

"So where's here?"

"Windsor Court Hotel. Let's go, we're late," she told him as she walked into the door and towards the elevators.

"Okay, crash course on who's going to be upstairs. You've met us four. My parents are Lorelai and Christopher, call them that. No Mr., no Mrs., no ma'am or sir. You'll be able to tell who my mom is and my dad will be either staring at her or attached to her, they won't be your problem,"she said as the elevator doors opened and they got on. "Addie's parents and Kinley and John Halpin's parents are a little different from mine. You'll need to use ma'am and sir with all of them. Addie's mom is Mrs. Julia and her dad is Mr. Charlie, call them that. However, the hardest to win over will be Kinley and John Halpin's dad. He's not bad at all once he knows you, but until then, he can be quite pretentious. His name is Mr. Beau and you'll have to be real polite to him, but don't be fake. If you don't like something, tell him. If you have an opinion, don't shy away from it. He'll appreciate it, I promise. Her mom is Mrs. Shelby and she cooked all the food that you'll find upstairs. Eat it."

"We just ate!" he interrupted her," I am not hungry."

"Eat it. If you don't eat it, she'll be hurt and think you don't like her food and in turn, her."

"Because I don't eat her food?"

"I'm not kidding," she said as the elevator dinged and they stepped into the suite.

The first thing he saw when they got off the elevator was their friends gathered in the living room of the suite with drinks in their hands. Before they could join them, Addie pointed into the kitchen and Rory sighed. Turning around, she grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the kitchen where he could see all of their parents sitting around talking.


	6. Adolf and Ava

**AN: Hey. I hope all of yall are doing well. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years and in keeping with the spirit of this story, I am happy to wish yall a happy Mardi Gras! Seeing as King's day was a few days ago--January 6th--we are officially in the Carnival season! Exciting, I know! Okay, I've gotten a few questions about names and places...the names that aren't from Gilmore Girls, are the names of some of my best friends. I took their parents names, too. And all the places I have/will mention are real. If you're ever in New Orleans, try them. You won't be disappointed. :]**

"They've been in there for hours. What could be taking so long?" Colin asked his friends. They had been talking for a while and finally noticed the voices in the room over were rising.

"It's been twenty minutes, and you know how talks with your parents go. It's the same thing," Logan answered.

"The same thing? You think so?" Stephanie asked the boys.

"I'm pretty sure, yea. You guys didn't get specifics on the other three? You were with them for a few hours, shouldn't you know about them?"

"Of course we did," Colin added. "We got a lot of stories. They all go to Tulane, even though they wanted to go to LSU. That, apparently, is precious information. We asked where they went to school and they all told us where they went to high school, like that's important. The guy—they call him Jack sometimes—is about a year and a half older than the girls. He treats them all like sisters and he's had to have a few stern talks with ex boyfriends."

"Oh, mate, don't forget about the food," Finn interrupted.

"The food, yea. We spent 15 minutes talking about which restaurant on a certain block had the best bread.," Colin informed Logan. "I've never given any thought to the bread at a restaurant, apparently a restaurant can be judged on it's bread alone."

"Just because it's different, doesn't mean it's worse, Colin," Logan told him. "I got the story on Rory and the Gilmores. Well, part of it."

"And?" Stephanie prompted him.

"She would be in our social circles if her parents hadn't left Hartford. Her dad was down here on business when the family atmosphere convinced him to pick up his family and move. They've been here ever since. I didn't get anything on how the grandparents took the move or how they got involved in society down here but that's the gist of it."

Stephanie had opened her mouth to ask a question when the door to the suite opened and John Halpin walked in with a tray of coffee. They watched him head to the room where it seemed that the girls were being lectured, put his ear against the door, sigh, and walk in. He was able to leave the room in under 15 seconds and made his way over to the living room where the Yalies were talking.

"They're in the staring stage," he explained, sinking into a chair. "They'll be out in a few minutes, though. Lorelai is already making faces behind the moms at Addie and Kinley."

"What's Rory doing?" Logan asked him.

"Rory? Well…she's actually ignoring everyone. She was just sitting by the window. Why?"

"I just…well, I didn't want her to get in more trouble because we were late."

Logan watched as this guy—Jack, he remembered Colin saying they called him—raised an eyebrow at his translucently false reasoning. He knew that if this guy could tell something was a little bit off, his best friends would definitely be able to tell. Maybe not Finn. No, he could already see Finn looking at the door and then back at him.

"Good luck with convincing yourself that," he told him.

If that was all he was going to tell him, Logan was pretty sure he could handle this guy. He appreciated the humor in his voice for what it was—both of them knew that Logan was full of shit. He didn't want to be concerned with what she was doing on the other side of the door, but he couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking about if she was ignoring everyone. He knew that the conversation had continued and was reveling in his own thoughts when a new voice cut through the room.

"So you kids are the reason my wife called me today to tell me that Hartford was haunting us?"

Five heads snapped towards the door where a man was standing. Logan assumed that he was Rory's dad since he had been the only parent missing earlier. The four of them had no idea what to say and it was painstakingly obvious. They knew how much contempt they had for Hartford society and weren't sure how to deal with someone who had disliked it so much that it caused him to leave.

"Hey Chris," Logan heard John Halpin say, "they're fine…nothing like yall horror stories when yall come back from Christmas. Stephanie, Colin, Finn, and Logan," he told Rory's dad while he gestured to each of them.

"My girls get a little carried away sometimes when describing Adolf and Ava," he explained.

"Adolf and Ava?" Finn asked.

"Finn, is it?" he asked as Finn nodded. "My wife likes to refer to her parents as Adolf and Ava and Rory goes along with it. They're quite the pair, them two," he explained.

"We've met her parents," Colin interrupted. "From what we've seen, Richard can hardly be described as resembling a dictator."

Logan watched as Chris started laughing and then looked to the door when he heard it open. Rory and her mom had their heads bent together and seemed to be talking about something important when they looked towards Chris and walked over.

"Hey daddy, what's so funny?" Rory asked as she sat next to Steph in an armchair.

"This one here—," he said, pointing at Colin.

"Colin," Rory offered.

"Yea, Colin. Colin just told me that your grandpa can't be described as a dictator."

Logan watched as Rory and her mom looked at everyone before they started laughing.

"Of course not, Colin. We would never call Grandpa Adolf. Grandma's the dictator."

"You refer to Emily as Adolf?!" Logan interrupted.

"Like he said, Dad's never done anything to warrant a nickname like Adolf. My mom? She would have fit right in with the Axis powers. Anyway," Rory's mom continued, lowering her voice, "it's almost 5 now and Shleby wants to eat for 6 so you girls have enough time to make yourselves perfect."

"Is this a secret?" Steph asked, still whispering.

"No."

"Why are we whispering, then?"

"Because she wanted the girls to shower before dinner so you don't waste time after. And since I know you all will have enough time I'm giving you the chance to get away for an hour if you want."

"I'll deal with my mom. We can stay, it'll be fine. My feet are killing me," Kinley said.

"Okay, whatever you say," Rory's mom said. "But remember it's not going to be just us. The St. Martin's are coming over to eat."

Logan watched as Chris got up and pulled Lorelai out of the room with him. He saw Rory's mom shoot her an apologetic glance and then heard Rory groan and her friends laugh. Him and his friends didn't know what that exactly meant, and could only look around at each of their new friends.

Logan laughed as Rory softly hit her head on the arm of her chair but quickly stopped when she glared at him. She just went back to hitting her head on the arm rest. Finn, being Finn, was the first to talk again.

"I would hate for you to have a bruise on your head tonight, love. Why are you hitting it on the chair?"

"Ugh," was the only response she gave them.

Right as they were about to ask Rory's friends about her reaction, another family walked into the suite. Logan watched as their new friends automatically stood up and he knew that his friends were feeling the same relief that he was. Relieved that, for once, they didn't have to deal with the expectations that come with fake smiles and stuffy dinner chat. They weren't in danger of disappointing their parents and he was looking forward to watching-to not being involved. However, Logan had to hold in his laughter when he saw Rory trying to duck behind John Halpin and then scoot around the corner before the guy their age could see her as he walked into the den where they were all sitting.

"Where's Rory?" the guy asked as he sat down. Logan was already thinking that he wouldn't like the guy.

"I don't know where she went…she's around," John Halpin told him. "Yall, this is Jackson St. Martin. Jackson, this is Colin, Logan, Finn, and Stephanie."

"Nice to meet yall. Where are yall from?"

"Hartford," Stephanie answered him.

"That's cool. Rory's from Hartford, right?" Oh yea, Logan was not fond of this guy.

"Yea, she is," Logan told him. "How do you know her?"

"We run in the same social circle. Eventually, though, I'm going to marry her."

Seven heads snapped up, Logan heard Addie choke on her drink, and they heard Kinley and John Halpin both try to cover up laughs. It was a fact. Logan definitely did not like this guy. At all.

"Are you?" Kinley asked. "You know she doesn't actually want to date you, right?

"You say that now, it'll change," he told her.

"Aren't you confidant. What makes you so sure?"

"She'll come around, I'm almost certain. She wants to work, doesn't she?"

"Of course she does," Addie answered him.

"Well I'm guessing she'll want to use the degree she's working on. I think her dating me would be in her best interest."

Okay so it wasn't even dislike anymore. Logan was almost positive he was getting close to hating this guy. He had known him for less than twenty minutes and he was very close to hating him, all because of how he was speaking about a girl he met 6 hours ago. He had no clue when he had developed this protective streak that he seemed to have for this girl, but he absolutely detested the way this guy-Jackson-was talking about her.

Logan had stopped listening a few minutes ago but he knew that John Halpin and Jackson were carrying on a very strained conversation. When the Jackson guy finally got up and walked out of the room, Logan decided he needed to know what the hell was with that guy. He looked at his friends and could tell that they were all wondering the same thing.

"So…what's with that guy?"

"He's an ass," Kinley answered.

"Yea, we got that. Care to elaborate?" Colin asked her.

"He's been trying to get Rory to date him since we were in like 7th grade. He cheats on his girlfriends. Everyone knows and no one tells him anything. Rory would never be caught dead with him."

"Why does he think her dating him would be in her best interest?"

"Rory wants to write," Addie explained. "She's a journalism major and she's a damn good reporter. She made parking lots sound exciting once. But Jackson's dad owns our newspaper, he'll take over eventually."

Logan couldn't hold in a groan when he heard his three best friends start laughing. Finn was muttering to himself about something being 'absolutely brilliant' and he could practically see the wheels turning in Steph's head. He needed them all to stop thinking right now.

"Logan! That'll help you out!"

Guess that wasn't an option. If he couldn't get them to stop thinking, he would surely get them to stop voicing their opinions. He definitely did not want or need to hear them.

"Steph. I don't know what you mean by that, but I seriously doubt that Rory is the kind of person who takes a job because of someone she knows."

"She's not, but we're missing something. What's so funny?" Addie asked.

"Oh mate, that's rich. A reporter. That's just hilarious," Finn told him, ignoring Addie's question.

Personally, Logan thought it was best if that question did not get answered. All he needed was the guy's dad to start talking to him. His night would go out the window.

"We're still confused…" John Halpin said.

"Well," Colin began. "Logan here—"

"Is majoring in journalism, also," Logan cut him off. "And now I'm going see if I can't find Rory. I'd hate for her to get cornered by that asshole."


	7. Balcony Talks

**AN: Hi, again. Nothing really happens in this chapter. Actually, nothing really happens in this whole story, I've realized. Sorry about that. I'll try to fix it, promise. Anyway, I'm heading up to Washington D.C. tomorrow for the March For Life(January 22), and I started school last week. I'm not sure how that'll affect me trying this writing thing, but I hope it doesn't affect it too much. I'm cautiously optomistic that I will not freeze to death this week in D.C., but I'm not promising anything. Hopefully, I'll still be able to update for yall somewhat regularly. :]**

Logan found Rory. She was sitting in a rocking chair in the corner of the balcony reading a book. He had to applaud her—she had hidden herself well. The only reason he found her was because he was looking for her. _And because his senses seemed to be hyper aware of her presence, _he thought to himself. Not that he was planning on admitting that to anyone any time soon. He was leaning against the door frame debating whether or not he was going to disturb her when Steph found him.

"What is it about her?" Steph asked coming to stand next to him.

Logan sighed. He knew that there was no way to get out of this conversation, and if he were being honest with himself, he was definitely more comfortable with Steph asking him these questions than Colin and Finn. He pulled her to him and tucked her into his side as he tried to think about what she was asking him.

"Okay…well if you don't know how to answer me that…you want to explain to me why you're so secretive about who you are?"

"You want the truth or what I'm trying to convince myself is the truth?"

"Both?"

"If that guy and his dad find out who I am, my night gets ruined. I'm not ready to get back into the society world. We have another 6 months before I have to willingly put myself back into talks about newspapers," he told her slowly.

"Okay."

"Okay? That's it?"

"Of course not. Now what's the truth?"

"Steph," he said warningly.

"No. I know I'm right. That is a good reason, it really is…but it's not the real reason. It's a good justification, though."

"I don't know," he began, "I really don't. She's very…amusing. You know?"

"Amusing? No, I don't know…"

"She's funny, smart, quick—"

"Drop dead gorgeous?"

"No. Well, yes," he said at Stephanie's raised eyebrow. "She is. She is beautiful, but that's not what I'm talking about."

"Alright, what are you talking about?"

He waited a beat, deciding if he wanted to tell Stephanie the main source of his confusion. He was reveling in the reaction Rory had given him earlier that day. He wanted to know what Steph's reaction was going to be, but he wasn't sure he was ready to share this

"She knows who I am, Steph."

"So she knows you're Logan Huntzberger…or she knows you're Logan Huntzberger—heir of a huge media conglomerate?"

"The second one."

"And she said?"

"She asked why I was critiquing her need to read newspaper articles. She asked me if I should be thanking her. And then she kept walking."

"That's a good thing, Logan. Why are you standing here staring at her and not talking to her?"

"It's not that simple."

"No, it really is. I talked to her friends for you today. Yea, I noticed you staring at her. They all said the same thing—she's amazingly smart and doesn't take crap from anyone. But John Halpin said she could use someone to make her take more chances, live a little more. The way I see it, you two would get along very well. So why are you standing here?"

"I'll go talk to her in a few minutes. Tell me something first…"

"Anything. As long as you answer my question after."

"Deal. What about you and John Halpin?"

"Oh, Huntz…nothing is going to happen there. He's really cute, though. We're way too different. He is fun to hang out with. Happy?"

"If you're happy, I'm happy. What's your question?"

"Do you like her?"

"Steph…I'm not sure."

"You said you—"

"Steph, let me finish," he cut her off. "I'm not sure. How long have we known them? Just a few hours. I've never actually liked a girl before. But I do enjoy talking to her. I'm surprisingly just as protective of her as I am of you, and I don't want her to have to ever talk to that guy in the next room. That's why I needed to come find her. But I don't know what any of that means, but that's all I know."

"Ah!" she shrieked and flung herself into his arms, effectively disturbing Rory and alerting her of their presence all at once. She looked up from her book and made a move to get up when Steph squeezed him one last time and pushed him out onto the balcony.

"Steph seems excited. What was that about?"

"I never really know with her," he said sitting down next to her. "So.."

"So…"

"That guy in there is an ass."

"Yea, he is," she told him quietly. "Did he say anything about me?"

"Well…he did mention something about you marrying him."

She groaned and he couldn't help but smile. She went back to hitting her head…this time on the railing of the balcony. Without thinking, he moved his chair to sit next to her and pulled her back against his shoulder. He held his arm around her shoulder when she tried to move to hit her head again to hit it on the rail.

"Now, I know I've only known you for a few hours…but you don't seem like the kind of girl who's going to date some guy because his dad owns a few newspapers. Trust me, I know all about those types of girls."

He was relieved when she laughed when he wiggled his eyebrows and elated when he felt her relax on his shoulder.

"No, I'm not," she said. "I'm really not. I have every intention of working and proving myself. I want to…I hate that he assumes that of me. Did he find out that you're in the business, too?"

"He left to find you and your friends filled us in as to why he thought you would marry him. My friends found it highly amusing. Colin was about to explain it to them, but I interrupted. They just think I'm a journalism student."

"Your more normal than I would have imagined the heir of a huge media empire to be, you know? It's refreshing."

"Wow. I wish you could convince my dad that. You say refreshing, he says disappointing. "

"Why does he think you're a disappointment?"

"I'd rather not get into that, Ace."

"Oh, yea. Sorry…Ace?"

"I hear your one damn fine reporter. Something about making a parking lot sound cool, I think," he told her and laughed when she punched his arm.

"I'm not even going to respond to that. Leave it to my friends to make sure they embarrass me. We have to go eat. Brace yourself…the dad's love to talk about the newspaper and how it's doing."

"Great. Now I want to hit my head on the railing. Will you sit by me? Save me from the conversation? Please, Ror. Please! Don't make me bear it alone!"

"Come on, you big baby," she said pulling him out of his chair. "Put your society face on. Don't worry—it's not as scary as Hartford."


	8. Somewhat Overprotective

He was shocked, and he could tell that Steph, Colin, and Finn were thinking the same thing. He was almost certain that none of them had ever experienced a family gathering quite like this before. They sat down to eat at 6 and Logan was pleasantly aware that it was getting close to 7:30. He could definitely see why Rory's parents felt comfortable enough in this atmosphere to move their whole life. He was also happy that they had gotten through almost the entire meal before anyone brought up the newspaper with Jackson's dad.

"I've been hearing rumblings about you selling the paper, Tripp. Is that true? Are you thinking about it?" Christopher asked Jackson's dad.

"Well we got an offer last week from a publishing group," he explained. "The paper is great, but it would help me expand if I didn't have to deal with it."

"Why do they want it? Did they say?"

"He said his son likes New Orleans and he's looking for a place to put him after he graduates."

"So what would happen with the paper?" Addie's dad asked.

"Well we've only talked a few times. He doesn't want to buy it right now; he just wanted to see if I would be willing to sell. His son still has a year or so at Yale."

Yale. With that one word Logan placed his undivided attention on the conversation going on. He heard Colin choke on his drink and Finn's fork clatter onto his plate. He didn't have to pretend that this conversation wasn't about him—there weren't any other newspaper heirs who had 'a year or so' left at Yale. But as that heir, he wasn't going to assume—it got people into big trouble.

"Excuse me, sir," he interrupted, "I'm a journalism student and I was just wondering which publishing group was offering to buy your paper."

"Of course, it was the Huntzbergers."

And then there was silence. Punctuated by him and his friends looking at each other frantically. All he could focus on was the fact that his dad knew he was in New Orleans. He couldn't even process that fact, let alone that his dad was trying to buy the paper so he could run it after graduation. He couldn't believe that this man, who had no clue who he was, knew the plans for his life more than he did. He was deep in thought when he realized the man had asked him a question.

"I'm sorry, what did you ask?"

"I just asked if you knew them. I heard that yall were from Hartford," the man explained.

_Well how exactly was he supposed to answer that?_

"We know them, yea," Logan heard Steph answer for him. "We all went to school together with Mitchum's son."

"And would he run my program into the ground?"

"No, sir, he wouldn't," Colin told him while Finn smirked at Logan. Logan just shook his head at the turn this conversation had taken.

"Mom, what time do we need to be ready for?" Rory asked and went back to the conversation she was having with Kinley and Addie like the answer didn't matter.

The conversation at the table immediately went back to the plans for the night and Logan realized what Rory had done. When she finally glanced over, he mouthed a 'thank you' and she smiled.

They were late. They all knew it. None of them were even thinking about walking into the room next door to hurry the girls along, though. They had already been yelled at three different times. So they sat. Logan looked around and had to suppress a laugh. There were Colin, Finn, and himself sitting in a room with John Halpin, Jackson, his dad Tripp, Christopher, Mr. Charlie, and Mr. Beau. They were all sitting there staring at the door, silently ordering it to open.

When it did open, all nine men stood up to hopefully meet the girls on the other side. When Rory and Steph did finally walk out of the room, they were met with differing reactions. Both girls were stunning. Steph came over as he watched Rory walk up to her dad and whisper something in his ear that caused him to burst out laughing and start walking towards the door where the other women still were getting ready.

"Rory, you're looking great. You're sitting by me, right?" Jackson asked.

He saw Rory's shoulders slump before she answered, "Jackson, no. I'm sitting with my friends."

"I'm sure they wouldn't mind you switching spots with someone."

"No, they might not, but I'd need about 5 flasks to deal with you tonight and my dress doesn't provide me space to keep one."

They watched as she walked away from him and towards the bar in the other room. He felt push and looked down to see Stephanie staring at him expectantly. He looked at Colin and Finn when they laughed.

"What?"

"It seems that Miss Stephanie here has the idea in her head that you've taken a liking to the lovely Miss Rory, mate. We've been told to leave you two alone as much as possible," Finn told him.

"Steph…"

"I'm just trying to help. You better watch out. Jackson's getting up. I bet I know where he's going."

He looked around and saw Jackson standing up. He knew that Steph meant well. He also knew that she was well aware that he did not mind being pushed towards Rory one bit.

"Alright, I'm going."

He knew that Colin and Finn probably were watching him walk away totally perplexed. He was hoping that Steph would try to avoid the topic, but knew she wouldn't.

"What was that about?" Colin asked.

"Logan has a crush," Steph told them.

"Logan doesn't do crushes, Steph."

"Well I don't know what she is…but she's not just another girl to him."

"Are we playing matchmaker tonight, love?"

"You know, Finn? I don't think we'll need to," she said. "But be prepared to start if she's anywhere as stubborn as he can be."

"Sorry to interrupt," Logan directed at the guy with Rory, "but I could really use your help, Ace."

"What can I do for you, Logan?"

"Why are you calling her Ace?"

"I hear she's one kickass reporter. That she's going to take the world by storm. That she's an Ace reporter."

"And what do you know about reporters?"

"I know a little bit," Logan said, winking at Rory. "I just have a feeling about this one here...she'll be great, and I'm pretty sure she's going to keep all those boring parties a bit more eventful."

"What did you need help with, Logan?"

"Well," he leaned over to whisper in her ear, "I think my tie is crooked."

"Oh well we can't have that! Let me see," she told him.

He smiled at her when she turned around and started playing with his tie, and laughed at the face that Jackson made behind her.

"Okay, I'm amazing. I totally fixed your tie. Can we go see everyone else?"

"Anything for the pretty girl."

"Thanks. We'll see you later, Jackson."

"Are we going to have to deal with him tonight?" Logan asked as they walked away.

"Hopefully not, but he's pretty insistent."

"Well then we'll just have to make sure either Colin, Finn, or myself is always around you to save you."

"John Halpin can help, too."

"That guy knows that you and Jack will never date. At least if it's one of us, he doesn't really know what the relationship is. You can pretend you've known us forever."

"Thanks, but you really don't have to do that. I can handle him. I've been doing it for years."

Logan pulled Rory to a stop and turned her to look at him.

"Rory, I know you can handle it. I have no doubt in your abilities," he started. "However, there's no need for you to, and you shouldn't have to. You can ask Steph if you don't believe me, but us three are very protective of her, and I feel that need to protect you for some reason. So no, you won't be needing to handle him tonight."

"Oh," was all she said. He could tell that she was trying to figure out how he wanted her to respond to his outburst.

"Sorry about that…I don't know where it came from. But it's true. I haven't told you yet, but you look stunning."

"Thanks."

When they walked back into the living room, they saw everyone getting into coats and walking towards to door. Rory looked at him and laughed.

"What?"

"It's nothing. I just hope you're ready for a night filled with ruckus and debauchery."

"I live for nights filled with ruckus and debauchery, Ace."

"Well good," she told him. "Maybe you'll be able to keep up. Let's go."


	9. Memories

He was slowly seeping back into conscious thought, and the only thing he could think of was exactly how uncomfortable he was. While he was certain he was awake now, he couldn't shake the weight of sleep that was still pulling on him. When he rolled over to check the time, he was met with another body and his eyes instantly shot open. His head protested to the light and sudden moment. He realized that the weight he was feeling wasn't sleep but Rory's head on his arm. He could have laughed when he saw that he was squeezed into the king-sized bed with Rory, Kinley, and Steph, but he had no clue how he got there. All he could do was replay memories from the night before.

* * *

"_This is AMAZING, Ror!" he screamed over the crowd noise._

"_I know. I absolutely love it. How are your hands?" she asked._

"_My hands? What do you mean my hands? I've got great hands. I'll let you figure that out for yourself if you want, though," Logan told her and smiled when he saw her blush._

"_Logan," she started, "I promise that's not what I meant."_

"_Sweetheart, you never have to apologize to me," he whispered in her ear._

"_Anyway, Logan, I meant how are your hands because one of my good friends is on the next float and she's going to be bombing beads at us."_

"_Well then I guess I'll just have to make sure they don't hit you in the face."_

"_I knew I was letting you hang out with me for a reason!"_

"_I'm just glad I serve a purpose."_

_

* * *

_

"_Where did everyone else go?"_

_He looked around and laughed. Their friends were nowhere to be found. The only person that he could see that he knew was Jackson, and he was on his way over to them. _

"_Dance with me, Ace."_

"_Oh. Um, okay."_

"_It's either me or Jackson, Ace. Pick your poison."_

"_Let's go."_

_They got on the dance floor and he was so happy when she tucked her head into the crook of his neck and started singing along with the song._

"_Like this song?" he asked and felt her nod and say something into his chest._

"_What was that, Ace?"_

"_I said that I like this band—they played at my high school prom."_

* * *

"_There are the two lovebirds," Finn yelled as Logan and Rory made their way back to the table._

"_Finn…"_

"_Rory," Kinley started, "you just missed some girls from Sacred Heart."_

"_Sacred Heart?" Steph asked her._

"_Academy of the Sacred Heart. It's where we went to school," Rory explained. "We pretty much spent 15 years with the same group of girls. No one new ever really came. Except in 9__th__ grade, we got a few new ones then."_

"_What about the guys?"_

"_All girl school. From Pre-K 3 until senior year of high school," Addie told Steph. _

"_Wow."_

"_Yea. We loved it, though."_

* * *

"_I am not going to feel good in the morning."_

"_Sleep until the afternoon," he told her._

"_Can't."_

"_Why not?"_

"_I've got---_

* * *

He was jolted out of his memories by the alarm clock going off. Before he could even process that fact, Rory was reaching over him to hit the snooze button. Once she hit the alarm clock, she situated herself with her head on his chest and seemed to go back to sleep. He was amused by her actions, and he knew the exact moment she realized that she was laying on his chest and not on her pillow anymore. Her entire body froze and he moved his arm across her back so he could hold her against him instead of the jumping up and freak out he had a feeling was coming.

"Go back to sleep, Ace."

"Mmm. Morning," she said sleepily.

"Why'd you set the alarm for 9:30?"

"Up."

"What?"

"Me. I need to get up."

"You need to sleep."

"Sleep when you're dead."

The alarm clock went off again and she just groaned and hit it again. He was certain that she was not aware just how much he was enjoying her continuous moves to lean across him to turn off the buzzing.

"Okay, I'm up," she said as she actually sat up.

"And why do you have to be up, again?"

"I told you last night. I'm going to church at 11. Usually Kinley and John Halpin come with me, but they're not going to get up. But after Mass, I'll meet yall at The Court of Two Sisters for Sunday Brunch."

"So you're going to church…in about an hour? By yourself?"

"Mhmm, it's like…2 minutes from here. Are yall hanging out with us today?"

"You couldn't pry us away. Actually, do you mind if I tag along?"

"You want to come to Mass with me?"

"I'd rather you not go alone."

"Are you…I mean, well…you're Catholic?"

He shrugged.

"I went to a Catholic school for 4 or 5 years. Does that count?"

"It's literally 3 blocks away, I can go by myself. You should sleep."

"Do you think we could pass by our house after? Pick up some clothes?"

"Are you ignoring me?"

"Just your objections to me joining you. Do you want to shower first or should I go?"

"You're incorrigible. I'm going shower. We're leaving at 10:30."

"I'll be ready. Should we be concerned that Kinley hasn't moved one muscle since we've been talking? I know Steph can sleep with the dead, but what about her?"

"Definitely not. You wouldn't be able to get her up if you tried. Addie will round everyone up for lunch."

"You girls do this every Sunday?"

"Usually. It's our thing. Sometimes John Halpin comes, but it's always us three. Okay I really need to shower. I'll be back."

"Take your time, Ace."

* * *

Once Rory had gone into the bathroom and he heard the shower turn on, he made his way to one of the other bedrooms in the suite, where he assumed Colin and Finn were. He saw John Halpin walking out of the bathroom.

"Where've you been all night?" he asked when he saw Logan.

"I woke up in a bed with Rory, Addie, and Steph, actually. I'm still not sure how I got there, though."

"Do I need to threaten you like every other guy that looks at them?"

"No, man. We're just friends."

"Yea, sure," he said. "Why are you awake?"

"Church?"

"You coming with us?"

"Rory didn't want to wake you and Kinley up, and I didn't want her walking down there by herself."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"You like one of my best friends, don't deny it. You can come to Mass with us, I'm not going to deny you going to Mass. Go take a shower, we'll talk about it after. Do you need clothes?"

"If you have a shirt, that'd be great."

"Alright, I've got one you can use."

"Thanks," he said and walked into the bathroom.

When he walked out, he saw a shirt hanging on the closet door, but couldn't find John Halpin. Pulling on the shirt, he couldn't help but laugh at the fact that Colin and Finn had slept through an entire conversation and hadn't moved an inch. He walked out into the living room and then made his way to the kitchen. Logan poured himself some coffee and sat down on a barstool next to John Halpin. They sat like that for a few minutes before John Halpin said anything.

"Do you think that any guy is good enough for Steph?"

Confused by what he meant, Logan answered, "Honestly, no. I really think she's too good for everyone."

"Good. So I don't have to explain that that's how I feel about Rory."

Ah, that's where this was going. "No, trust me…that's one sentiment I understand. I'd say the same thing about Rory, and I've only known her for a day. Or Addie or Kinley, for that matter. You've got three amazing girls."

"Yea, three amazing girls who all have been treated like shit at one point or another. But, I guess you know how much that kills me, I would assume it's the same for you and Stephanie."

"I do know. Trust me, I know that feeling. But I'm really not trying to do anything with Rory."

"But you like her."

"I'm not sure. She's special, you know?"

"And she likes you."

"Excuse me?"

"Rory doesn't act like that…with us, sure, but not with anyone else. I had a talk with Kinley last night and she agrees. Now, she's not going to ever do anything about it, but she likes you."

"Oh okay well what—"

"Hey Logan," Rory called from the doorway. They looked toward the door and saw her face contort with surprise. "Oh, hey Jack. I'm so sorry if we woke you up, I really didn't want to."

"It's alright, Ror. I set the alarm, I figured you'd still want to go."

"Oh, you didn't have to do that, I was going to walk over there by myself and meet yall for brunch."

"Well we're both up now."

"Oh okay. Can you help me?" she asked walking out of the room.

"Of course, what do you need?"

"Zip me up?"

"Sure," he responded as he zipped up her dress.

"Okay, thanks," she said as she took his coffee mug. "I'll be back in 10 minutes. You boys are okay?"

"Go do what you need to do, Ace. We're fine," Logan told her and watched her walk back into the bedroom.

"She's going to rush around the bathroom now that she knows we're waiting," John Halpin told him.

"Yea?"

"Yea, she hates keeping people waiting. Which is funny because she's never on time."

"What do you mean?"

"If you ever tell her you'll pick her up at 7 and you have the nerve to get there at 7, I can almost promise you she'll open the door in her robe muttering about you being an audacious jerk who has no concept of time."

"That's something I'd like to see."

"Well, if yall are still around after Mardi Gras, maybe you'll get a chance to."

"I think we're going to be staying here until we have to be back up at Yale."

"Really?"

"Well, we haven't talked about it…but why not?" he said as Rory walked out of the room.

"Okay, ready. Let's go."

* * *

"Alright, I'm going walk back and get everyone going. Are yall coming?"

"Oh, Logan wanted to walk back to their house to get clothes…I was going to go with him."

"Say no more. I'll call yall when we make it to brunch."

"Call if you need anything."

"Bye man, call me if you have a problem with Colin. He should be fine, but if you can't get him up, you've got no shot with Finn. Work on Colin first."

"Yea, I figured that one."

Rory watched him walk down the road until they couldn't see him anymore before she turned and smiled at Logan.

"What?"

"Let's go. We have to get coffee."

"Whatever you want."

"You better watch what you say, mister. I'll hold you to that."

"I wouldn't want any less, Ace."


	10. Sunday Brunch and Superior Grill

**AN: Hi, again. So, this isn't a very good chapter. I'm sorry. I really am. I'm kind of stuck. I know where I want to end up, but I'm not sure how to get there. And I know it's been awhile, but I had this paper to write and since I didn't know what I wanted to do with this chapter...it took some time. **

**Oh, and thank yall for the reviews. :] I've tried to get back to all of yall, but if I haven't I'm sorry...I really appreciate it.  
**

"If we keep stopping, we won't have time to get back to the restaurant," Logan told her as they walked back onto the sidewalk.

She shrugged and he laughed at her reaction. She was also very nervous. She had decided the night before that she really liked spending time with Logan; he definitely wasn't like the Hartford boys her mom described. He was more like her dad, rebellious, but kind hearted. That freaked her out. She was also pretty freaked out because she still couldn't remember how Logan ended up in bed with them. She was determined to find out.

"Hey Ace, where'd you go?"

"Huh?" she said, snapping out of her thoughts.

"You were a million miles away just now. Penny for the thoughts in your pretty head?"

"I never took you to be cheap, Huntzberger."

"I'd give you thousands if you wanted it. I have a feeling you'd be offended if I offered that, though."

"You're right…I'd probably bite your head off."

"I figured as much. So, do I need to get a real penny out?"

"Oh…I don't even know what I was thinking. However, I did want to ask you about Colin and Finn."

"Colin and Finn?"

"Well yea, I've talked to you a lot and we got to know Steph pretty well when we were getting ready last night, but all I know about Colin and Finn is that they go to Yale."

"So you want to know about Colin and Finn. Really? Why?"

"Well I'd feel bad if I spent a significant amount of time with people and all I know about them is where they went to school. Seeing as I've already spent A good deal of time with them, I think I should know some more."

"Okay...but only if you tell me more about your friends," he stipulated.

"I can do that."

"Well…" she prompted.

"Oh. We're starting now. Okay. Colin and Finn. Well, I guess we'll start with Colin. He's the most protective person I've ever come into contact with. Of his friends, of his family, of anything he cares about. He's an ass, though. He knows it, so it's okay. I'm pretty sure he's in love with Steph, but he wouldn't ever want to act on that. He's a sensible guy, which is good, seeing that me and Finn get out of hand sometimes."

"I never would have imagined that one," she quipped.

"Hush, you. Now, Finn…he's…well, he's Finn. He is absolutely ridiculous. But he's also one of the most loyal people I've ever met. Most people think he's just some drunk that can't get his shit together, but he knows exactly what goes on around him—it's weird. Um…he's hit 9 different guys because they've made Steph feel uncomfortable. Um, I don't know…they're my brothers. Anything specific you want to know?" he asked as they turned the corner onto St. Charles.

"No, I think that's good for now."

"Okay. So what about Addie and Kinley?"

"Okay…let me see. Okay, well remember how I told you we moved when I was 6?"

"Yea…"

"Okay, well…so we moved in the middle of the year and I missed about 2 weeks of school. My dad talked to the business guys and all their girls were at Sacred Heart, so my mom went with me and got me enrolled. When I got to school these two girls were in my class talking and they came talk to me and asked if I was Lorelai Hayden. I told them yea, but I went by Rory and they said that their dads wanted them to be friends with me. We've done everything together ever since. Addie is very shy around people she meets who she might end up liking, if that makes sense. Yall haven't seen her let loose yet, she's crazy. She's had a thing for John Halpin ever since he asked her to his homecoming dance in 9th grade, but he's too clueless to realize it. If her parents let her, she's going to be an amazing teacher. Her dad doesn't want her to work, much less teach. She wallows with me when I need her and knows when not to ask questions."

"Colin and Steph are like that."

"Huh?"

"Too clueless to realize that they're perfect for each other? Is that Addie and Jack?"

"You got it."

"Colin and Steph are like that, too."

"Ah…I see. It's annoying. "

"It is. Now what about Kinley?"

"Kinley. Okay. Well, Kinley is the opposite. She's extremely outgoing. She has no qualms with telling you you're an ass if you're pissing her off. She's extremely protective of Addie, her brother, and me. She's dying to set me up with one of her friends, and she likes to poke me until I wake up so I'll go on a coffee and donut run with her on random mornings. She's got no clue what she wants to do with her life. We all live together, which you probably already knew, but we take care of each other. If Finn and Colin are your brothers, Kinley and Addie are my sisters. My mom is my best friend, but I couldn't live without Addie or Kinley."

"And John Halpin?"

"Big brother. I would assume that he treats us the way yall treat Stephanie."

"That's what I figured."

"Finally. Yall's house is was too far away."

"Sorry. Do you want to grab clothes for Steph?" he asked and saw her nod in agreement. "Good, thanks. She hates when we go through her clothes. Her room is down the hall to your left. I'll get everything me and the guys need"

She walked down the hall to Steph's room and sat down on her bed. She needed to clear her head. The whole walk to their house, they had been caught up in stories and she couldn't help realize the attention Logan was giving her. He had maintained contact with her at all times. Whether it was his arm on her shoulder, him grabbing her arm when he emphasized a point in his story, or when he had his hand on the small of her back to lead her through the crowds. That didn't bother her, though. She didn't find it weird at all, which might have bothered her. She wasn't sure if being comfortable with the physical contact bothered her or if she was bothered because she wasn't bothered by the physical contact. Goodness, she wasn't making sense anymore. She was brought out of her thoughts when she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. She got up and started packing clothes for Stephanie as she answered and talked to Kinley. She tuned Kinley out as she ranted about not being woken up, but was shocked when she heard the questions Kinley was asking.

"So did you and Logan hook up yet?"

"What?" she spat out. "Kinley, no, I don't—"

"Yes, you do. Now tell me, can he kiss?"

"Kinley."

"Rory, I'm right. You know that I'm right."

"I don't know," she sighed. "But he's really nice. So nice."

"Okay, good to know. I'm supposed to tell you that we're walking into the restaurant so yall get down here, we have seats for yall."

"Alright, we're heading over there," she said, hanging up.

"Logan?" she called as she made her way to the living room and sat down.

She listened as she heard a rustling in the hallway and laughed when she saw him walk out with nothing but empty bags.

"Do you need help?" she asked.

"I don't know what kind of clothes we need."

"Jeans, tshirts, polos…that type of stuff. Yall had sweatshirts on yesterday, right?" he nodded. "Okay, that's all you should need then."

"Okay, I'll be out in 5 minutes."

* * *

They had met everyone else at the restaurant and the New Orleans kids explained their tradition of Sunday brunch. The told the story of how they developed it during high school and couldn't bring themselves to stop once they got to Tulane. When Colin asked if they always brought friends with them, they looked around at each other before John Halpin explained they had never invited anyone else. They discovered that the Yalies weren't kidding when they said that the food made them nervous. After much pleading, they let Addie order for everyone and dropped the looks of apprehension after a few bites.

They walked back to the hotel to change before making their way to what she kept telling Logan was 'their spot'. He was as convinced that it made a difference where they watched the parade, but gave in.

"Rory, love, we've been walking for a long time. Where are we going?"

"It's just a little farther, Finn. I promise. Jack, did you call that guy?"

"Yea, he knows we're coming and have the extras."

"Great. Just lovely," she said sarcastically.

"Wait, what guy?" Logan asked.

"Our usual spot for parades is with other people we've known forever," Kinley explained. "So my brother had to call Jackson to make sure he knew we were still coming."

"I don't like that guy."

"Of course you don't," she muttered and smiled at Steph.

"What?"

"Nothing, Logan. We just figured you wouldn't like him," Steph said.

"Well I don't. Whoa, Ace, let a guy know you're stopping," he said as he barreled into her as she stopped.

"Where are we?" Finn asked.

Kinley smiled and everyone just looked at her, waiting for something.

"Well?"

"This, my friends," she began, "is my favorite place in the city. Well maybe not…but for 5 days each year this is the only place I'd like to be. We are on St. Charles Avenue, across from Superior Grill. Everyone knows where this spot is, and I will go down to my grave saying that you can't have a better time than across from Superior Grill."

"So what's so great about it," Colin asked.

"She doesn't even know," Rory said. "But I agree, there's something about this place. Once it's dark, there's music and dancing in the street and then just the parade in general. Oh, and the drinks keep coming, of course."

"Sounds perfect," Steph said.

"Okay, I'm going get drinks," John Halpin said. "You boys keep an eye on my girls, Jackson and his friends are on their way over."


	11. An Afternoon Off?

**AN: Hey, hi, hello. Sorry, it's been awhile. I've been pretty busy with school and other nonsense. I hope yall like this chapter. :] I'm going to try to get another one up before the weekend, but I have a paper due on Friday. If it's not up by Friday, it definitely won't be up until at least next Thursday. The super crews roll this weekend, and I'll literally be camped out in a tent in New Orleans with a bunch of my friends** **from Friday afternoon until Tuesday night. However, seeing as Wednesday will be my hangover day, I should be writing again after that. If you could, reviews would be great. :] -Emily.**

Logan had to admit, Mardi Gras had been one of the best experiences of his life. It was something different. He was used to never ending parties, but he wasn't used to a continuous 4 day party with people he had never met. Finn had declared his love for New Orleans so many times that strangers were starting to refer to him as 'that Australian guy who loves New Orleans'. He knew that Steph was beyond excited to really get to know Rory, Addie, and Kinley. He was happy that she finally had girls to hang out with, and he was pretty sure Colin didn't care what they did with the rest of their year off. They had talked about their plans once the parades ended and had decided that New Orleans would remain home until they thought of a place they would rather be. It had been almost a week since life around New Orleans returned to normal and Logan had a problem. Rory had been M.I.A. since their whole group went to lunch the Wednesday after Mardi Gras. He had seen the other girls and John Halpin quite often, but never Rory. The worst part was that everyone knew he was wondering where she was and no one would tell him. They made him ask.

* * *

"_So where has Rory been hiding?"_

"_She doesn't do anything during school," Kinley said._

"_What does that mean?"_

"_It means just that…she gets up, goes to class, puts in some time at the paper, comes home to study. She does make a point to eat dinner with us, but besides that…she really just focuses on her schoolwork."_

"_So if I wanted to drop by and take her out to lunch tomorrow…"_

"_Logan," John Halpin interrupted, "if you want to see Rory, go see her. Bring coffee and don't be offended if she doesn't pay attention to you. But she'll be at the newspaper tomorrow afternoon."_

"_Which newspaper?"_

"_Tulane's paper. You want directions?"_

"_Sure. It's about time I took a look around Tulane. The way you guys talk about it, it's the best place ever."_

_

* * *

  
_

He was kind of regretting that now. He never voluntarily showed his face in a newspaper office, he just didn't do it. He opposed it on principle. He didn't like that she didn't go out with them at night. Sure, they had only been out twice since he had seen her, but he felt weird being with all of her friends knowing she was sitting at home studying or hanging around the house. And there was the fact that he wanted to see her in her element. Every one of her friends had expressed how dedicated she was to her classes and the paper and he wanted to see her in action, so to speak.

He was walking slowly towards the building that John Halpin had pointed out to him when he saw Jackson walk in one of the doors. Quickening his pace, he followed him into what he assumed to be the newsroom. He still couldn't pinpoint the need he had for finding his way through the Tulane campus to the newsroom, and if he were honest with himself, he didn't want to. But once he caught sight of her, he was certain that there was no other place he'd rather be at that moment. He looked around quickly taking note of how similar it was to the Yale newsroom before his eyes settled on her figure.

He watched as she stopped typing and wiped a hand over her eyes and ran it through her hair. She sighed heavily and rolled her head back. She looked like she needed a break, a well-deserved break. She grabbed her coffee mug and got up from her desk. He took this as his chance to walk over. He sat at her desk and took in the room before saving the work she had been doing on her computer and turning it off. He started pulling together her notebooks and folders, putting them all in a messenger bag he found under the desk.

Watching her from the corner of his eye, he had to suppress laughter when he saw her face register who was sitting at her desk. She paused and watched him for a few minutes before walking back towards her desk.

"Logan, hi. What are you doing?" she asked.

"Solitaire."

"What?"

"You asked me when I'm doing. I'm playing solitaire, Ace."

"Oh. Okay."

She paused and tapped her pen on the desk for a minute before she said anything again.

"So…Logan?"

"Yea, Ace?"

"What are you doing here? You know…at Tulane…sitting at my desk?"

"Taking you out to lunch. Ready?" he said as he got up and started walking towards the door. Halfway there, he realized that she wasn't following and stopped and walked back towards her.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't just go, Logan. I have work to do."

"Take a break, have lunch with me. I'm very worried about you. Word on the street is that you're running out of books to read, you need to slow down."

"Logan."

"Okay, not working? What about if I tell you that I've been wondering where you've been. We've gone out with your friends a few times and you aren't ever there."

"Well is that the truth?"

"It is. But don't tell anyone, it's a secret. Will you let me buy you lunch now?"

"I can buy my own lunch."

"I'm sure you can, Ace, but it's not like I'd ever let you," he told her as he pulled her out of the newsroom.

* * *

"You didn't have to walk me back, Logan."

"I know, but if I didn't walk you back, I know for a fact that you wouldn't go home right now," he told her as they walked into the newsroom.

"Grab your stuff and I'll drive you home."

"Fine, but I have to go make some copies. You can sit at my desk."

He told her to take her time and turned on her computer to check his e-mail. He got bored with his dad's e-mails pretty quickly and went back to playing solitaire. Eventually, he leaned back in the chair to watch her talk to people he assumed were other reporters. He watched as her friends looked at her with shocked faces and then smiled as she blushed and motioned towards him. He smiled and waved when the other girls looked in his direction. Finally, she told her friends goodbye and walked towards her desk.

"So what was that about?"

"What?"

"Those girls looked pretty shocked at what you were telling them," he started, "what'd you say?"

"Oh. They were just surprised I was leaving."

"I see. Ready?"

"Um…yea. Jackson wanted to say hi before we left, if that's okay."

"Ace," he groaned, "I hate that guy."

"I know. I'm sorry. Why don't you just go, you don't have to drive me home. Actually, I should try to get—"

"No. You are going home. Kinley said you haven't made it home before 6 all week. I'll deal with Jackson if it lets me bring you home."

"Okay…maybe you're right. Oh, here he comes. We'll just say bye and we can go, okay?"

"Deal, but you owe me."

"Okay, I'll buy you some ice cream. Hey Jackson, we were just walking out."

"Hey Ror, Logan."

"Hey man, how's it going?" Logan asked.

"I can't complain. Running the paper gets stressful, but I deal with it."

"I can imagine," he said and smirked at Rory. "So you're in charge here?" he asked with a wave of his hand.

"Yea, editor."

"Ah, I see. Oh, I've got to take this. You guys keep talking," he said and walked away, pulling out his phone.

Turning to tell Jackson bye, she heard Logan answer his phone and cringed.

"_Huntzberger….Seth! What's up?....No, I'm in New Orleans…I'm actually in a newsroom right now, can I give you a call later when I'm with Colin and Finn? You know that three heads are better than one when planning things…Oh, Tulane…I'll explain it to you later, man….Okay, bye."_

After he hung up, he turned around to see Jackson staring at him and Rory shaking her head. Not knowing what happened, he started walking over. He heard Rory mumble something and she was pulling him out of the newsroom before he could even muster a goodbye to Jackson.

"What was all that about? I thought we were being nice to him?" he asked once she stopped dragging him.

"Do you seriously always answer your phone like that?"

"Like what?"

" 'Huntzberger,' " she said, dropping her voice to imitate his.

"Of course I do. Why?"

"Well because you just answered your phone like that in front of Jackson. Jackson. The guy whose dad was just contacted by your dad to buy their newspaper. Remember?"

"Oh."

"Oh?!"

"Oops?"

"Logan, I don't care if he knows who you are or not. It just seemed like you didn't want him to know since you had carefully avoided the subject any time he was around. I'm just trying to look out for you," she told him.

He felt his entire chest swell with contentment. Cocking his head to one side, he looked at her. He believed her. She was only looking out for him. Those weren't words he had been told many times. Usually, looking out for him meant one of his friends steered a gold-digger out of his path. It never meant looking out for his happiness, even if the other person didn't understand why he needed to remain inconspicuous. He had never had anyone just accept him and take him on faith as he had the past week with Rory and her friends.

"Logan. What's wrong?"

He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her. She was looking up at him, fidgeting, and biting her lip.

"Nothing. Everything's perfect. Let's get you home," he said and led her to his car with an arm around her shoulders.

* * *

Throwing her messenger bag under her desk, she had to admit that it felt good to call it an early day and relax for the rest of the afternoon. Walking downstairs, she saw Logan looking at all of their pictures around the living room. She couldn't help but laugh when she saw his face scrunch up when he saw a picture from a high school dance.

"You went to prom with Jackson?" he asked without turning around.

"I went to his prom with him."

"His prom?"

"Yea, we didn't go to school together, remember? He asked me to his, I took my boyfriend at the time to mine."

"Oh. Okay, that makes sense."

"Yea…it was a fun night. But, now that you made me come home early, I want to really live up my afternoon off. You want to watch a movie with me?"

"Nothing I'd rather, Ace."

"Okay, well pick a movie. I'm going get food," she said and walked out of the room.

Great. Now she was going to be watching movies with him all afternoon. Not that she minded. That was the problem, she definitely didn't mind. At all. She never was the girl who let a guy drag her out of the newsroom or library, but Logan had barely had to ask. She knew as soon as she saw him sitting in her desk that she wouldn't be getting any work done that day, and she was okay with that. Her mom would laugh at her. Yes, she most certainly would. She would laugh, tell her that she had a crush on a hot guy, and push her into the living room. Kinley would do the same thing. John Halpin would probably ask her if she was sure she didn't want to join the Ursuline Nuns again. Yea, John Halpin was always trying to stop them from dating. She didn't know what she was going to do. Even better, she knew that she probably didn't have an option. There was no way she'd ever let Logan knew he could probably convince her to do anything he wanted. No, not when she didn't have a clue what he thought. She heard the front door open and close, but she went on putting the food on a tray to bring out to the den.

"Ror, what are you doing?"

She looked up to see Kinley standing in the doorway to the kitchen wearing a shocked expression and Logan walking up the hall behind her.

"Getting food to watch a movie."

"Why? What's wrong? Is everything okay? What's going on?"

"Nothing's wrong, Kinley. Why?"

"You're home. It's not even 2:30, Rory. Why are you here?"

"I live here too, you know."

"I know, but you're never here before 6 on schooldays. Are you sure you're okay?"

"She's fine," Logan said, "I passed by Tulane today and took her out to lunch. When we got back to the newsroom I asked her to take the afternoon off and here we are."

"You," she said, pointing at Logan, "got her," pointing at Rory, "to take an afternoon off?"

"Yea," he shrugged.

"Ah…I see."

"You see what?"

"Nothing, Ror."

"What? Tell me."

"I had a test this morning. I'm exhausted. I'm going take a nap. Don't wake me up, okay?"

"Okay…what do you want for dinner?"

"How 'bout we go out?"

"Oh. Sure, that's fine."

"Wow," Kinley said. Rory watched her walk towards the stairs shaking her head.

"I wonder what's up with her."

"No clue, Ace."

"Oh well. You ready to watch a movie?"

"I'm ready for anything, Ace," he told her with a wink.


	12. Dinner and Ice Cream

**AN: Hi. Happy Mardi Gras! :] :] I actually wrote this Friday while I was waiting for my English class to start, but I forgot to post it once I drove back to New Orleans. Sorry about that. But anyway, I decided to start updating my blog again. However, I forgot the password, so I made a new one. I put the link in my profile, and I think I'll be updating that and I'll try to put in a few words on how the story's coming along. I also put up a couple of pictures from this year's Endymion Extravaganza in case you had no clue what to even imagine when I was basing an entire story off of it. There's not many because I'm not usually the one who takes pictures in my group, but you can get a general idea. Wow, enough of my rambling. I really hope you enjoy this chapter, let me know! I love when yall review, I really do.**

He had to keep himself from laughing when he realized that Rory had fallen asleep about 15 minutes into the movie. Hearing how hard she was always working, he figured that she crashed as soon as she stopped. The movie was ending when he heard their front door swing open and someone run inside.

"KINLEY. WHERE ARE YOU?" he heard Addie yell.

"Shh," Logan said as he watched her walk down the hall. She stopped when she heard him and ran into the living room.

"Logan. Where's Kinley?"

"She told us that she had a test this morning and she wanted to take a nap," he explained.

"Us?"

"Me and Rory…your best friend who's sleeping in my lap right now…"

"Oh. Crap. I didn't even see her."

"She fell asleep right after the movie started."

"Why is she here?"

"You two seem fixated on her being here…she does live here, right?"

"Well yea, but she's never home before dinner. I was about to get Kinley to go try and grab her from school. Jackson's pissed off. At you, actually."

"I figured he would be. How'd you find out and what did he say?"

"Well he called John Halpin screaming about some insolent asshole and when Jack found out he was talking about you, he told me to go pick Rory up…so I figured I'd come get Kinley before I attempted to drag Ror from the paper. So what happened?"

Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair. He knew he would have to tell all of them about how much of an idiot he had been. He had been unknowingly twirling a piece of Rory's hair and looked up to see Addie smiling at him.

"What do you say I call Colin and you call Jack and I'll take all of you to dinner and explain how stupid I am," he finally answered her.

"That's fine with us, but you get to convince Rory. You're not going to be able to wake her up unless you push her off the couch or wave coffee under her nose."

"Good to know…so you'll call John Halpin?"

"I will. I'm going take a shower, are you just going to stay here?"

"Yea, I think so."

"Like anyone could pry you away," he heard her mutter as she walked away.

He ran his hand through his hair again and tried to pull his cell phone out without disturbing Rory so he could call Colin.

* * *

A few hours later, the group found themselves eating at a restaurant that Addie's grandpa had helped finance. She told Logan how her grandpa's best friend from high school wanted to open the place so that he could cook for everyone and have a place on the parade route for Mardi Gras when she insisted they go there. They had all ordered and were eating when Logan was telling the story.

"So I answered my phone when it rang—we have to call Seth later, by the way—and I'm guessing he didn't like that I answered my phone."

"Wait, you're trying to tell me that the language I heard this afternoon was in reaction to you answering your phone? Yea, right," John Halpin told him.

"No," Steph interrupted, "the language was probably due to how Logan answers his phone with his last name. So when Logan answered, Jackson probably figured out that Logan is the Huntzberger heir that is supposedly going to take over the paper down here once his dad buys it."

"And yall didn't tell Jackson that Logan's last name was Huntzberger before?" Kinley asked.

"Why would we, love? That would have been awkward the night of the party," Finn said.

"I guess that's true, but we found out the other night when he was with us, couldn't he have found out then with everyone else?"

"Rory knew the night of the Extravaganza," he told them.

Everyone's eyes flew to Rory who looked up with her mouth full and continued chewing slowly before timidly smiling at everyone. The subject was dropped as everyone erupted in laughter and went back to their food and mindless chatter.

* * *

When they left Serio's after a long dinner, Rory declared that she wanted ice cream. Addie and Kinley simply told her no and kept walking to the car. She pouted at their retreating figures and slumped towards the cars.

"I'll take you for ice cream, Ace," she heard Logan say.

"Wait. Really?"

"Sure, let someone bring your car back and I'll drive us," he told her.

"So you'll really take me anywhere I want to go for ice cream?"

He paused before he answered when he heard John Halpin laugh and saw him shake his head.

"I don't know if I should agree to this," he started slowly, "but yes, I'll take you anywhere you want for ice cream."

"What if I wanted to go get gelato in Italy?"

"I'd ask where the airport is. Is that where we're going?"

"Very good answer, but no. Come on, let's go."

He told his friends bye and she gave her keys to Kinley before he led her to his car, pausing to open the door for her. Rounding the front of the car, he pulled out his phone to see a new text message from Finn. Looking back to the sidewalk, he saw everyone had already gotten into the two remaining cars. They were pulling onto the street when he opened his phone and read,

_Don't come home unless you ask her out, mate. Really don't come home if she says no…we're not putting up with your sad ass tonight._

He shook his head getting into the car and deflected the topic when Rory asked, instead just asking her where he was heading.

"Okay, so I want a Café Au Lait sundae."

"Well then let's go get you a Café Au Lait sundae. Where to Ace?"

"Go straight," she told him.

"I think you should take the afternoon off more often, Ror."

"And why is that?"

"Because anyone who crashes at 3 in the afternoon after watching 20 minutes of an action movie is way too exhausted."

"I was just really tired today, I'm usually not."

"Yea, alright. Then how about how worried both of your roommates were when they found out you were home. You shouldn't worry them by being home, that's crazy."

"Fine, I'll try to go home more or whatever you're trying to tell me. Turn left," she instructed.

"I just think that you should try to relax more. I don't think you just hang out enough."

"What does tonight count as? Me being un-relaxed? Turn right."

"No, it's just—"

"Park. It's right there."

"Got it," he said as he pulled into the next spot on the street he could find.

He watched her practically fly out of his car and into the ice cream shop faster than he had ever seen her move before. By the time he made his way inside she was squealing and being brought into a hug with an older woman.

"Rory, darling," he heard the woman tell her, "we're so happy to have you here! Where have you been, honey?"

He heard her launch into a story about how she had a week full of tests and then had been partying for Mardi Gras. He watched as the woman just nodded along with her.

"Peter, make Rory her sundae," she said looking up. She had finally seen him and he gave her a small wave. "Rory, Rory, Rory, who is this, your new boy? You finally broke up with that other one?"

He smirked when she blushed and walked over to introduce himself.

"Logan Huntzberger, ma'am. Rory and her friends kind of adopted my friends and me. We're from Connecticut and they found us before Mardi Gras. She wanted ice cream, I'm her chariot for the night," he supplied.

"Yea, Mrs. Ann, he's not my new boy…just friends, I promise. We took them to the Extravaganza with us. But me and the other boy did break up. It's a long story, though."

"Okay, you tell me later. And he may not be your new boy now, but he will be. You know how I've got an eye for these things. So young man, what can we get for you?"

"Oh, um…I guess I'll just get a scoop of cookies and cream?"

"Okay, I'll get you something," he told her as she walked off.

"Why did that sound like I won't be getting just a scoop of ice cream?" he asked.

"Because you won't be. That would be stupid," Rory told him.

"Oh, my order was stupid?"

"Pretty much, I'm not going to lie."

"Fine, think I'm stupid."

"Just your order."

"Yea, yea, whatever. So they know you pretty well here," he stated.

"Yea. I love it here. They have everything I could ever want…and when I just need to get away from everything, Mrs. Ann is here to take me in. She knows about every problem I've ever had."

"Like this ex boyfriend that no one has ever mentioned but apparently you just broke up with?"

"Yea, like him. She never liked him."

"Why not?"

"Because he let me pay for my own ice cream and she thinks a boy shouldn't ever do that."

"He made you pay for your ice cream?"

"Don't look so offended, Logan. It's not like he made me…I offered, I begged, he gave in. It wasn't a big deal," she told him.

Their ice cream arrived, effectively cutting him off before he could argue about just how big of a deal he thought it was. When he saw what they had brought him, his eyes popped open as wide as saucers.

"Whoa, I saw a scoop of cookies and cream and I get…"

"You get a cookie crumbs sundae. I didn't think you were serious about only wanting one scoop," the woman told him.

"I don't think I can eat all of this. I just ate a huge sandwich,"

"Po-boy," Rory corrected him.

"That's okay, honey. I'll bring you a box when I bring Rory her go cup," she told him and walked away.

"You're getting a go cup? What's a go cup?" he asked Rory.

"The first time I was here I couldn't decide if I wanted the Café Au Lait sundae or the frozen cappuccino. She laughed at me and told me to eat the sundae and she would give me the drink to go, on the house. Ever since then, that's what I get. Mr. Peter even adds an extra shot of espresso into the cappuccino for me," she told him smiling.

They both ate for a few minutes in comfortable silence before Logan started talking again. He couldn't help himself; he wanted to know more about this ex boyfriend of hers. He decided that vague and uninterested were his best shots at getting any information out of her.

"What was his name?" he asked.

"Who?"

"The ex boyfriend."

"Oh, Dean. Dean was his name. Or well, it is his name. It's not like he died or anything."

"How long did you two date?" he asked and watched as her nose scrunched up at his question.

"Well…we dated for three months and then broke up. Then we got back together and dated for almost a year until he broke up with me about a month ago."

"I see. Why'd you break up the first time?"

"He told me he loved me and I couldn't say it back. I freaked out."

"So he broke up with you?" he asked slowly.

"Yea, it was…well it just was."

"Okay. So you and him are on and off, that's cool. Do you think you will get back together soon?" he asked and silently prayed for a no.

"No, no, no, no, no, definitely no," she told him quietly and he rejoiced internally.

"Ah, so no?"

"Yea, probably not," she told him.

"Okay well…enough of this sad stuff. I don't think he deserved you. Good riddance, we're moving on. To new adventures," he said while holding a spoon full of ice cream. She just stared at him blankly.

"Ace, usually when someone toasts, they hold up their ice cream too."

"Oh, yea. Right. To new adventures," she said and clinked her spoon with his.


	13. Story Time

**AN: Hi. :] It's been awhile, I know. Sorry about that. **

"You're funny, you know that?" he asked and watched as she stopped eating and looked at him. He was waiting for her to come back with a quick retort or even a pointed glare, but he laughed as she simply shrugged her shoulders and went back to eating her ice cream.

"Are you going to tell me why I'm funny? Or did you just make a statement with nothing to back it up?" she asked a few minutes later.

"I didn't think you wanted me to elaborate."

"Well now I do."

"I've just never seen someone enjoy ice cream as much as you do, much less a girl."

"What does that mean? I'm pretty sure that most girls like ice cream," she said slowly.

"No, that's not what I meant. It's just that none of the girls I ever eat with would dare to eat ice cream. And definitely not an entire sundae with a shake to go."

"I think you're just hanging out with the wrong girls. Except Steph, I like Steph."

"Good. She likes you, too."

He thought about what Finn had told him while they ate. He was trying to convince himself that he didn't want to ask this girl out, but he kept on contradicting himself. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that he was going to ask her out, he just needed to figure out what she would say before he made a fool out of himself.

"You're being weird," she told him, effectively bringing him out of his thoughts.

"What am I doing?"

"You look like you're trying to figure something out but you keep looking at me instead of the ice cream. What do you want to know?"

"Ah, I see you're putting those reporter skills to good use."

"And now you're stalling," she said.

"Alright. I was just trying to figure out how you would react to something," he explained.

"You could just ask me and see how I react first hand."

"I could," he said and nodded.

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Aren't you going to ask me?"

"Ask you what?"

"Whatever you want me to react to."

"Oh, that," he paused. "No, I don't think I'm going to. Come on, let's get you home. I'm assuming you have classes tomorrow?"

"Sure do, and I seriously need to get some work done at the paper. For some reason I didn't get much done this afternoon," she glared at him.

"Do I need to make it a habit of coming drag you away from the paper? Don't think I won't."

"Oh no. Jackson's going to want to ask me all about you tomorrow. He's going to assume the worst. Somehow I think it's going to be my fault that you're dad wants to buy his dad's newspaper. I can't wait to see how he'll convince himself of that one. I def—"

"You wanna get something to eat tomorrow night?" he interrupted.

"Wait, what?"

"Do you want to get something to eat? Tomorrow night?"

"Oh. Well, I can't."

"You can't."

"I eat with my family on Friday nights. Kinley and Addie usually come with me. John Halpin comes sometimes, too. You could too. If you wanted, of course."

"That's not what I meant."

"I'm confused."

"No…what I meant is, I want to take you out. If not Friday than Saturday."

"You want to take me out," she repeated.

"You know, pick you up and tell you that you look beautiful, maybe bring you a flower, take you out to eat and then maybe to see a cheesy movie, drop you off on your porch. Maybe a kiss goodnight, even, if I'm lucky."

"You want to take me out."

"You think about that, I'll go get your shake and pay for our ice cream," he said and walked to the counter. He looked back and laughed at her face, she looked so confused.

He had a small conversation with Mrs. Ann before she took his money and gave him an empty carton for his ice cream and Rory's frozen cappuccino. He assured her that he would get Rory home safely and that he was trying to get to go out with him. The woman smiled at him kindly and instructed him to tell Rory to come back soon.

---

They were waiting for her when she got home, just like she knew they would be. Although, she had to give them credit, they did give her a chance to put her coat away, put her cappuccino in the freezer, and sit down on the sofa before they started the interrogation.

"Did he kiss you?" Kinley wanted to know.

"Kinley! Of course he didn't. They just met!" Addie butted in.

Getting up, she walked to the kitchen to get ice cream. She sat at the island with two extra spoons waiting for whenever they decided to join her. When they finally walked in, she figured it would be best to just tell the whole story.

"Wait, " she said holding out the spoons to them. "I'll tell yall the story, but no comments until after I'm finished, deal?"

"Deal," Kinley said and took the spoons, handing one to Addie.

"Okay…so we went to Creole Creamery. I love that place, they make the best Café Au Lait sundae. Anyway, as soon as we got there Mrs. Ann was attacking me and asking if he was my new boy. I told her no and she said that he would be, I'm not sure what she meant by that one. But so talked a lot. About random stuff, nothing in particular. He asked about Dean and then we toasted ice cream to new adventures. He thinks I'm funny and he told me he wanted to take me out to dinner tomorrow night."

"But you have dinner tomorrow night," Addie interrupted.

"I know. No interruptions. I told him I had dinner with the family, but he could come if he wanted to and he told me I was misunderstanding him. He wanted to take me out…something about maybe bring me a flower and possibly a kiss goodnight….I was kind of out of it, I didn't catch everything."

"Oh, that's cute. So what'd you say?" Kinley asked.

"I guess we're doing interruptions now."

"Just answer the question, Ror."

"Well I didn't say anything. He got up and went pay the bill and when he came back, he handed me my coffee and walked me back to his car.

"Well what happened?" Addie asked.

"I'll tell you, calm down…"

--

_She had been thinking about the situation ever since he walked her out to the car. She had forgotten to tell him where to go and when she looked up, she realized he was either lost or just driving around._

"_Do you know where you're going?" she asked him._

"_I thought I was bringing you home. Did you want to go somewhere else?"_

"_Oh, that's not what I meant…you're going the wrong way."_

"_I am?"_

"_Yea…you're heading to the river right now…I'm closer to Canal Street," she explained._

"_Oh okay…so U-turn?"_

"_Yep, and then head straight back up…you'll pass right in front of my house."_

"_Alright, I know where I'm going now I think."_

_Once she saw that he was going in the right direction, she started thinking again. It seemed like he wasn't going to say anything, that he would let her bring the subject up again._

"_Logan?"_

"_Yea?"_

"_Were you being serious before? Or were you joking?"_

"_Serious about what, Ace?"_

"_Logan. You know what."_

"_Oh, me asking you to come to dinner with me? Of course I was serious, why wouldn't I be?"_

"_I don't know…it's just that from everything Steph has told us about you, I've got to say…I'm not really your type of girl," she explained._

_She watched him groan and hit his head on his headrest. As he came to a stop at a red light, he turned in his seat to look at her._

"_You talked to Steph about me?"_

"_No, not like that. It was right after we met yall, when we were getting ready for the Extravaganza. We were just curious. Nothing bad, I promise," she explained and felt herself blush as he continued to watch her._

"_Ace, it's okay. I kind of like that you asked about me. I asked John Halpin about you."_

"_Yea, he told me."_

"_He told you? Wow. I guess the whole guy talk concept is lost on him."_

"_Don't be mad at him…he's just looking out for me. He's like my big brother."_

"_So, I need to watch myself around him?"_

"_I don't know, Logan…I'm not like your other girls. I usually do the whole relationship thing."_

"_I know, Rory, I do…but I'm just asking you to come to dinner with me. I like talking to you, you keep my guessing all the time. Which isn't something that's ever happened."_

"_But you can still talk to me without taking me to dinner."_

"_Yea, but then I'd never have the option of kissing you which is one option I'd really like to have."_

"_Logan!"_

"_It's true, Ace. Come on, let me take you out. I've never had to beg a girl to go out with me."_

"_Well I guess this is me keeping you guessing."_

"_Yea, it is. So what do you say? Will you go out with me? Saturday night?"_

"_Alright. I'll go."_

"_Thanks, Ace. I think we'll have fun."_

"_We better."_

--

"RORY!! That's so cute. When's your last class tomorrow?"

"11:30, why?"

"We have to go shopping," Addie yelled. "You have to get something to wear—are you kidding. He just dropped you off, why is he calling you?" she asked when Rory's phone started vibrating on the table.

"Hello?" Kinley answered her phone. "No, it's Kinley…what do you want?...Well we're trying to find out the story from tonight but you're distracting…What?...Oh, Daisies…She doesn't like roses…Yes, daisies…Okay. Goodnight, Logan."

"He wanted to know your favorite flower, Ror," Kinley offered.

"Yea, I figured."

"Okay, so…shopping tomorrow afternoon?" Addie asked. "Yall can wait for me and we can go to lunch and then hit the mall."

"You in, Ror?" Kinley asked.

"I suppose…if yall buy me lunch," she stipulated.

"Done," they responded together.

"Okay…I'm in," she said as she walked towards the stairs.

"Wait. That was too easy," Addie said.

"Well, what can I say? I've got a date this weekend, I need to look good," she told them and ran up the stairs.

When she got to the top, she looked back at her friends who were staring open-mouthed at each other. She knew she had shocked them, majorly, but she liked it.


	14. Tomorrow Definitely Tomorrow

**AN: It's been awhile, I know. Sorry about that. I've been somewhat swamped with school work and my roommates and I make it a point to get to every LSU baseball game we can. I'll try to update sooner next time. Let me know what yall think! :]**

Falling asleep in the library was never a good thing; Rory Hayden knew that. She had gone out of her way to avoid Jackson that morning. She knew he had two classes before she had to go to her first one, so she finished her article and left the paper before he had a chance to find her. Even with all her extra effort, she hadn't been successful. After her coffee and class, he found her sequestered in a corner of the library, and they had talked about the whole thing. It was exhausting, and now she could barely keep her eyes open. Sighing, she decided it was time to head home to meet the girls and go shopping.

She walked into her house and heard a lot of people in her den. A lot more than just Kinley and Addie, she was sure. Logan, Colin, and Steph seemed to be mildly amused while Addie and Kinley appeared to be dying from laughter. Trying to figure out what was so funny, Rory finally saw Finn bust through the door that led into the kitchen. She decided to just wait in the hallway and see what was going on before she made her presence known. She realized that Finn must be acting something out, and she was pretty sure it was a scene from Much Ado About Nothing. Halfway through one of his lines he saw her.

"Love! You're home!" he exclaimed.

Every head snapped to the doorway and she saw either shock or smiles pass over everyone's faces.

"I sure am. That was quite a show you were putting on," she said.

"Ace, come sit down," Logan told her as he sat up to make room for her.

As she fell onto the couch, she heard Addie ask her if something was wrong.

"No, I was just falling asleep in the library so I came home. Did you both skip class?"

"Yea…we decided it would be more fun for all of us to go eat lunch before us four go shopping," Kinley explained.

"Oh fun. Steph, you're coming too?"

"Like you could convince me to stay away."

"Okay, well I wanted to change before we leave. I'll be right back," she said and headed up the stairs.

* * *

Logan was nervous, and he was never nervous. But tonight he was taking Rory to dinner. He had been sitting in his room reading a book, but that reminded him of Rory and made him nervous again. Then he picked up the newspaper and remembered that Jackson's dad owned it and he put that down. After that, he figured he would go out for coffee, but quickly decided that wasn't the least distracting thing. Getting off his bed and shoving his phone in his pocket, he walked down the hallway and knocked on Steph's door.

"You want to come eat lunch with me?" Logan asked once she opened the door.

"Yea, I guess…any reason why?"

"I need to clear my head, I think. You coming?"

"Yea, let me put some jeans on," she told him.

"Ten minutes, Steph."

"She asked! I just answered the question, Logan."

"You didn't have to tell her my whole history with girls, Steph."

"I don't see why you're mad. You asked Jack about her."

"Why does everyone know that?"

"Logan…it's not a big deal. Now she knows what you want…it won't be as awkward."

"Ugh. That's not what I want, Steph."

"Well then what do you want?"

"I'm not actually sure about that, yet. I haven't figured it out," he tried to explain. "But I like talking to her and annoying her, and I'd be lying if I said I don't love looking at her."

"Alright…well…okay. I've never heard you talk about a girl like that. I just don't know, Logan. You're only here for about 6 more months."

"I know, Steph."

"As long as you've thought about it. And be ready for tonight…because I'm in love with the dress she bought. She's going to look gorgeous."

"This skirt was definitely longer in the store. When did it shrink?" Rory mumbled as she appraised the new skirt she bought for their date.

"It's fine, Ror. Stop worrying. He's going to be here any second," Kinley said.

"Why?!"

"Because you told him 7 was fine. Remember?"

"But I meant 7:15 when I said 7. He knew that, right?"

"Rory Hayden," Addie started, "no one knows that you mean 7:15 when you say 7 except for us and Jack. Yep, there's the doorbell."

"Crap crap crap. Aw damnit, why can't boys know I need time to be pretty?"

"You better put on your make up," Addie called as she made her way down the stairs.

* * *

"You're early," Addie told him when she opened the door.

"She said 7," he said.

"She's muttering about how she needs time to be pretty. She's putting on the rest of her make up, but she should be finished in a few minutes now that she knows you're here."

"Well go tell her she's lying and that I'm waiting for her."

"She's fine, I'm ready. I was very rushed and not at all prepared, but I'm somewhat ready," Rory said, causing them both to turn around.

"Ace. Wow, you're beautiful."

"Thanks. Where are we going?"

"Brennan's…you ready?"

"Brennan's! My favorite restaurant!"

"I know."

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's get going," she told him.

* * *

"No! You're kidding!"

"I'm serious, Ace."

"People don't just sink yachts, Logan. I can't believe you're here now because Finn sank your dad's yacht. You lead an interesting life," she told him.

He watched as she shook her head and ate another bite of her dinner. He was having fun. They had talked the entire ride and hadn't had an uncomfortable moment since he picked her up. It was a relief for him; usually he was trying his hardest to refrain from gouging his eyes out with his fork because of his date's comments.

"So, what do you think?" he heard her ask, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"About what?"

"About going walk on the levee?"

"I think it sounds like a good idea. However, I have been informed that you usually watch movies on Saturday, no matter what…is that wrong?"

"Oh, well no…that's right."

"So I figured we could either catch a late movie somewhere or rent one and watch it," he told her.

"Dinner and a movie?"

"I'm all for tradition. People insist on doing dinner and a movie because it's a good idea, I just figured you would like it."

"Well I do. What do you want to see?"

"Anything you want, Ace. Anything you want."

* * *

"So you never did tell me about your talk with Jackson."

"Oh! I didn't! Okay, so he found me in the library this morning after I got my coffee--"

"Of course. Rory, library, and coffee, a sentence can't have one without the other two."

"Hey!"

"I'm just saying, Ace. Trust me, if I ran across you in the library at Yale, I'd pitch a tent there," he told her and watched as blush ran up through her cheeks.

He could not get over how much fun she was. Or how adorable she was, even though he was almost certain she would object to being called adorable. They had finished their meal and decided to catch a movie at the theatre. He liked that she molded herself to his side when he threw his arm over her shoulders and he liked how she looked up at him when she spoke to him. He liked how she rushed to the concession counter and told him she needed candy to watch a movie. _'Please, Logan. I really really need candy,' _she had told him. As if he could have ever thought of refusing her when she looked at him. He was pretty sure his most favorite thing was that once she picked where she wanted to sit, she pushed the armrest between them up, sat on her feet and turned towards him so they could talk.

"…and then he was asking me if I had ever met your dad. Like I would keep that a secret! I would brag about that all day long. I mean, you're great too, but your dad. Well he's…well you know, I'm sure. But he really—"

"So was he mad?" he cut her off.

"Mad? No, I don't think so…I think he was shocked. I mean you ambushed him when you answered that phone. He was pretty bamboozled," she said.

"Bamboozled?"

"Yea. Bamboozled. I'm sure he thought we had tricked him or something. But no, he's not mad."

"Good."

"Yea, good. Jack told him I was going to dinner with you, though."

"Oh. Is that bad? Is he mad about that?"

"He just told me not to come crying to him when you get bored with me next week. I told him I wouldn't if he left and let me study. So he left, but I couldn't study and I went home."

"Ace, listen—"

"Shh, movie's starting," she told him. She knew he wanted to explain himself, to respond to either Jackson's comments or even Steph's comments. She wasn't ready for that, though. For the rest of the night, she wanted to relax and have fun, so she leaned into his shoulder and sighed as he moved his arm around her and practically pulled her into his seat. Tomorrow, she decided, tomorrow she would deal with all of that other nonsense.


	15. Lazy Days

Rory was pretty sure she was about to pull her hair out. She had no clue what was going on with her life anymore, but she knew it was her doing. She could end her confusion quite easily, at any point. She had gone out with Logan that first time and she had to give it to him, she had a great time. She hadn't told her friends more than what happened. Rory was pretty sure that everyone thought they were dating. Were they dating? Who knew? Maybe Logan knew. Should she ask him? No. Everyone had informed her that he didn't actually date a girl. Not the same girl, and not for more than a few weeks. She knew what she was doing; she was giving him an easy out for whenever he got bored. She didn't want to have to actually break up. She figured that if they were just hanging out, dancing, and kissing that it would be easy if he got bored with her.

It was getting harder, though. She had convinced herself, quite easily, that she was just having fun, that Logan was just a fling and that she didn't really _need _him in her life.

But that morning, she had gotten a paper back. A stupid paper that she had spent entirely too much time on. She had holed herself up in a corner of the library and Logan brought her coffee. He had been there to give her a break, but ended up talking with her about the paper and helping her develop some of her ideas. So when she got it back she picked up the phone and hoped he was awake. He wasn't. But he told her that he was happy for her and that he would see her this afternoon. She was beyond excited, and she shouldn't be. It wasn't a good idea for her to be so excited about seeing him when they weren't really dating.

She seriously needed to get a life. It was getting ridiculous. Take right now, for instance, she was lying in her bed, trying to take a nap, and she couldn't because she was over-analyzing everything. Rolling over, she shoved her head into the sweatshirt that was in her bed and groaned. She was pathetic, and she was fully aware of that. She moved her sweatshirt to the other side of her bed. She had forgotten about her cell phone that was sitting on top of it and ended up getting hit in the face with the phone.

"Great," she muttered. "And now I'm talking to myself, lovely."

And that's when she heard it. Sitting up in her bed a bit too quickly, she saw Logan standing in her doorway.

"Logan, hi."

"Hey, Rory. What's up?"

"Um…what?"

"I said what's up," he told her and he came into the room. "You know, what have you been up to, what's going on, that kind of thing."

"Oh, yea. Nothing really, I was trying to ta—hey! You're in _my_ room and you're asking me what's up? Why are you here?"

"Well I was going to see if I could take you to lunch," he explained, "but watching you try to take a nap is highly amusing."

"Okay, I'll wake up," she told him, throwing her comforter off of her.

"Hold on," he said, putting a hand to her shoulder to stop her from getting up.

"What are you doing?"

"Right now, I'm talking to you, and in a few minutes I'm planning on taking a nap with you."

"Why?" she asked as she eyed him curiously.

"Well," he said dramatically, "as much as I've been trying to get you to relax, I know you're still entirely too stressed out. I also know that it's Friday afternoon, that you're finished with your classes, have turned in your article, and don't have anywhere to be all weekend because your mom and dad are out of town. I was kind of hoping that you would spend the weekend with me. A lazy weekend — take out, movies, and ice cream. I don't know…it's just a thought, what do you think?" he almost pleaded as he managed to sit on the edge of her bed.

A 'lazy weekend' she repeated to herself. She loved lazy days and was pretty sure that 2 and a half days of laziness would be amazing. She was also aware that there was no actual reason to turn him down. She had taken midterms the previous week and Jackson hadn't assigned her an article for next week's paper. The one thing that was holding her back, that had her biting her bottom lip so hard she was sure it was going to start bleeding, was that lazy weekends were for couples. Take out, movies, and ice cream were for people who were actually dating, and she had no clue what they were doing. She knew it was her fault she didn't know, too. She had been avoided the topic for the past few weeks; every time he began to hint at asking her what she thought about their situation she would change the subject, she was getting really good at it. If he stayed here and bummed around with her all weekend, she was almost positive there would be no more avoiding the subject. Not to mention the comments she would get from Addie and Kinley. _'Yea right he's not your boyfriend, Ror. He just shows up with coffee for you at random places because he needs some excitement in his life,' _Kinley had told her the other day. Addie had laughed and thrown in her own opinion, saying _'Yep, and Steph said his room has been mysteriously quiet lately'_. No, she had to remind herself, she was not responsible for anything he's doing.

She was almost certain that she could find some legitimate reason to convince him she couldn't have a reason, but he kissed her before she had a chance to come up with one.

"Hi," he told her as he pulled away from her.

"Hi?"

"Well I just realized that I hadn't said hello to you yet, and I hate when people don't tell me hello. So I fixed that problem."

"Oh. Ha. I'm sure. Well then, hello to you too."

"Yea, yea. I'm all for the hellos," he said, kissing her again. "More hellos I say."

"So what do you say, Ace? Me and you, one lazy weekend?"

She paused, and taking a deep breath answered, "Alright, what do you want to do?"

"Anything you want. We can stay here and watch movies for the rest of the weekend, or we can drive to the beach and stay there for two days. Hell, let's go to New York. Or we can have dinner in Paris tonight. Absolutely anything you want, Ror."

"We can't leave New Orleans."

"Why not?"

"Because people don't just do that!"

"We could. Think outside the box, just this once, Ace."

"I don't know, I think we're better off just staying here."

"If that's what you want. So how 'bout that nap?" he asked and nudged her over into the middle of her bed.

"Oh yea, a nap would be good," she said. _'Not like I'm going to be able to sleep with him here," _she added to herself.

"Okay, sleep tight, pretty girl," he told her, laying down and pulling her into his side.

---

He was woken up a few hours later when he felt her roll over and tangle her leg in his. He was about to try to fall back asleep when he felt her hand make it's way under his shirt and her nails scratch the side of his stomach. He wasn't going to lie, he was definitely enjoying it more than he probably should, but he knew that she wasn't going to…_help him out_ with that anytime soon. Tightening his hold on her, he leaned down to kiss her temple and felt her stir in response. _'Good,'_ he thought.

"Rory," he whispered just loud enough for her to hear him.

"Ace, it's time for you to wake up."

Nothing. Absolutely no reaction. He rolled them over so that he was hovering over her, propping himself up with his arms. He kissed her, quickly, and pulled back to watch her eyes flutter open.

"Mornin' Ace."

"Hm?"

"Where's your favorite place in the world?"

"The bay house," she said through a yawn. "Why?"

"No reason, I'm going get coffee, you want some?"

He laughed and moved from her bed when she just nodded and buried herself deeper in the comforter. Walking down the stairs, he was met with an amazing smell that pulled him in the direction of the kitchen. When he got there, he saw Kinley, Addie, and John Halpin sitting at the island talking in hushed tones.

"Hey guys," he said pulling out a barstool, causing Addie to jump.

"Logan, hi," Kinley greeted him while she took out a stack of bowls. "Are you eating with us?"

"When did you get here?" Addie asked before he could give Kinley an answer.

"Um, around 3, I think, and I don't know if I'm eating here. What's for dinner?"

"You've been here for almost 4 hours?"

"Yea, we took a nap. So what's for dinner?"

"Kinley made her last gumbo of the year," Addie informed him. "So are yall staying here or going eat somewhere?"

"I don't know, I'm giving her a few more minutes to sleep before I wake her up."

"Okay, well…I'm about to start cooking the rice," Kinley noted as she pushed a bowl and piece of bread at him. "Dip," she instructed.

He and Jack sat around the island in their thoughts. Jack had an economics textbook opened and was figuring out some graph or something, Logan figured. He was trying to figure out what he wanted to do this weekend. Did he want to stay in and eat with her friends tonight? It's not that he didn't like them, he go along with them marvelously, but ever since Rory agreed to his lazy weekend, he really just wanted her to himself. He was pretty sure that he wanted to be dating her, even if he wasn't sure what that would exactly entail. Steph had pointed out his lack of girls the other night, asking why he was leaving the bar they were at early and without a date. He told her that his head was killing him and he needed to sleep. He hadn't told her that Rory was in the library and he was planning on pulling her out and bringing her home before he went to their house to go to sleep.

That had been about a week and a half ago, and since then, he had tried to bring up their…um…relationship status to Rory. The first few times, he had gone home and laughed at her efforts to keep the conversation from steering in that direction. The past few times he had tried to bring it up, she had just kissed him, and he realized that that wasn't really fair. She _had_ to know that she could get just about anything out of him when she kissed him, and if she didn't…well, it's a good thing she hadn't realized it yet. But this weekend was different, he was going to figure out what was going on with them, and she was going to help him do it.

"What's the bay house?" he asked suddenly. He watched as Kinley and Addie stopped whispering by the stove long enough to turn in his direction and send him curious looks.

"Rory's family has a house in Bay St. Louis," Kinley told him slowly. "Why?"

"Bay St. Louis? Where's that?"

"It's about an hour and fifteen minutes from here," Jack finally said something. "In Mississippi."

"Okay. So if I wanted to bring her there for the weekend…" he trailed off, leaving them to finish the sentence.

"Are you?" Kinley asked.

"She agreed to spend the weekend with me, and I told her we would do absolutely anything she wanted. She said she wanted to stay in New Orleans but she said the bay house was her favorite place in the world when I woke her up."

"Yea, she loves it there," Jack revealed.

The three of them looked up as Logan snapped his fingers and pushed his chair back.

"I've got it. But I need you two," he stated, pointing at Kinley and Addie. "She's not going to know. But can you pack a bag for her? Pack enough in case we stay there until Sunday afternoon, if you can. And you," he pointed at John Halpin, "I need directions. Can you put it in my GPS?" he asked.

"I don't know the exact address…hold on, I'll call Chris for you."

"Thanks, I'll go grab my GPS from my car. You two, I'll be back in a minute so I can tell her to get dressed, do I need to get her out of her room for you to pack a bag?"

"I don't think," Addie said, looking at Kinley for confirmation. "I'm pretty sure Ror put clothes in the dryer this morning and we have enough of her clothes in our rooms to pack, and if she needs something else, she'll just wear something of ours."

"Okay, I'll leave the car unlocked. Just put the bag in the trunk when you're finished," he said as he practically ran out of the kitchen, leaving the three of them to stare at each other.

"Yea," Addie remarked. "And he's definitely NOT her boyfriend. Sure."

---

"Ace! Wake up! We gotta get going!"

"I thought you said lazy weekend. Logan, I can't go anywhere, I need to shower and get ready."

"Nonsense, Ace. Just throw some clothes on. Jeans and a shirt, nothing special, it's just you and me."

"Still, I need to wash my hair, and my face. I'm—"

"Beautiful," he cut her off. "Now get your cute butt out of bed and into the bathroom. If you take more than 5 minutes washing your face, I'm picking out your clothes and coming in there with you," he told her and laughed when her face flushed crimson and she muttered something in his direction. Walking over to her he leaned down and kissed her, smiling when he felt her try to pull them back onto her bed.

"Later, Ace. I promise, but your five minutes starts…now," he said, tapping his watch.

"Okay, she'll be ready in 5 minutes," he whispered, making his way down the stairs. "Are we all set everywhere else?"

"She won't be ready in 5 minutes," Jack told him.

"Oh, I think she will be."

"Hm. Why is that?"

"Because I told her if she wasn't, I'd pick out her clothes and be in the bathroom with her to get her dressed."

"She'll just lock the door," Addie said.

"As if a locked door would stop me. I learned how to pick a lock in 4th grade at my first boarding school. Finn lost his keys all the time and was constantly locking himself out of his room."

"Huh. Good to know things haven't changed."

"Now you've got it, Addie. But anyway, I'm going back up there. You sure her dad said it was alright?"

"Yea, man, you're good to go."

"Great. Thanks…all of you."

---

"I told you anything you put on would look great," he told her, taking in her jeans and sweater.

"Where are we going?"

"Surprise. Which is why I need you to wear this," he pulled out a black, silk cloth.

"What is—no. I am not wearing a blindfold. You don't even know where you're going half the time!"

"Come on, Ace," he whispered and brought her to him with his hands on her hips. "You agreed to a lazy weekend with me, right?"

"Yea," she answered glumly.

"You rethinking that? Good," he said after she shook her head. "You trust me?"

She looked up at him and smiled. Standing on her toes, she kissed him on the cheek. "Yea, I do," she finally told him.

"So…blindfold?" he asked, holding it up for her to see.

"Blindfold. But you better not be trying to kill me a dump me in the river."

"I would be a tad bit more creative than that," he reasoned while he tied the blindfold into place. "So, how many fingers am I holding up?" he asked with 1 finger raised.

"I can't see you, Logan."

"You sure?"

"I'm not sure how to convince you other than to say I can't see."

"Okay, I believe you. You want me to carry you down the stairs or can you walk?"

"I can walk."

"Well then let's get going."


	16. Heavyish Conversations

She hated surprises, and everyone knew it. She also hated not being in control...which is why she always insisted on driving. She was almost certain that she complained the first 45 minutes or so of their drive to wherever they were going. The only reason she stopped was because Logan was mumbling and cursing under his breath. She was pretty sure they were lost and he wasn't going to let her take the blindfold off, so she was enjoying his frustration.

"Crap. Stupid streets with no street signs," he muttered under his breath. She couldn't help but explode with laughter.

"Something funny, Ace?"

"Nothing at all. Are we almost there?" she asked in a sugary sweet voice. "I thought you said John Halpin put the directions in your GPS?"

"He did. But none of these streets have signs on them and I don't think the GPS knows where this place is, it just stopped a little while ago," he mumbled again.

"You know," she said slowly, "if you take off this dumb blindfold, I could probably point you in the right direction."

He sighed again and grabbed her hand, bringing it to his lips before he told her, "Alright, I'll take it off on one condition."

"Which is?"

"You can't have a reaction until you get me to the correct destination. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Are you going to take this blin—" she was cut off when Logan kissed her.

"Sorry, but it's hard to catch you off guard, I had to take the opportunity. Here you go, blindfold off," he explained untying the blindfold.

When he finished taking the blindfold off, she looked around and realized he had gotten them seriously lost. If she hadn't spent summers riding around through the back creeks, she would have no clue where they were. She was trying to hold in her smile at the fact he had chosen to bring her here, to the bay, because she was deliriously happy. Yes, this trip made her deliriously happy, but it was definitely not helping convince her that she didn't like Logan.

"Okay, take a left up there," she started with her directions.

"Where?"

"Up there. See? Where that light is."

"That's not a road, Ace."

"You trust me?"

"Of course I trust you, but that's an area of flattened grass. It doesn't even have rocks or dirt. Just grass."

"Well we could go back on this road. It'll take us about 40 minutes, though. If you listen to me and take my back roads, I can have us at the house in 10"

"Aw, hell. Okay, let's go."

---

"Thank you thank you thank you," she all but screamed when he opened her car door.

"Woah, Ace," Logan mumbled as she kissed him and pushed him against the staircase. "I'll bring you here every weekend if this is the reaction I get," he stated.

"Shut up. I'm just happy, I love this place."

"I know."

"You know?"

"You told me it was your favorite place, and then I asked around downstairs while you slept."

"I don't remember that. I don't care, though. Let's go in."

"Well, it happened, and just let me grab our bags."

"Bags! Logan, you were downstairs for fifteen minutes! Fifteen minutes and you come up with a trip to the bay _and_ you pack bags? There's no way you could have gone to yall house and back in 15 minutes."

"Of course not," he called as she walked up the stairs. "That would have been a waste of time."

He made his way up the flight of stairs and into a door she left open. Looking around, he had no clue where she went, but he saw the kitchen, living room, a hallway, and another flight of stairs.

"Ace! Where'd you go?" He asked and listened for any kind of response. All he heard was a muffled yell coming from upstairs. When he got to the top of the stairs, he made his way to the last door in the hallway where he saw a light on.

Pushing the door open, he was convinced he was in the right room. Even though she wasn't there, he could tell it was her room. It had the same qualities of her room in her house. Instead of the mirror wall, this room had a huge bay window with a window seat that he could see her asking to be built.

"You in here?" he asked again.

"Yea, come on in," she said walking out of what he assumed to be her closet.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting sheets to put on my bed," she stated pointing at the bed.

"Okay well this is your bag…"

"Oh! Put the bags right there, I'll finish this later. I'm starving…is pizza good for you?"

"That's fine."

"Alright, good. Pizza tonight and if you want we can go to the grocery tomorrow," she suggested and walked past him and back down the stairs. When he got downstairs he took in the picture of her already on the sofa going through the phone and placing the pizza order. He silently asked her where the bathroom was and moved in the direction she pointed. He listened as she finished the order and hung up the phone.

"Your phone is ringing," he heard her call. Figuring it was Colin or Finn calling to annoy him, he sighed and yelled for her to answer it. Walking back into the living room he saw her on his phone talking to whoever was on the other end.

"He's here…I was just closer to the phone…Rory Hayden, who is this?...yes, I know Colin and Finn…" he heard her say and that caught his attention; it wasn't Finn or Colin on the phone. He sat down on the sofa and pulled her into his side, smiling at how she was able to mold her body to his.

"Who's on the phone, Ace?"

"Hold on," he heard her tell the person on the phone. "It's Seth. He wants to know who I am, how you know me, where Colin is and why yall haven't called him back yet. He said that he told yall it was _urgent_," she imitated Seth perfectly. "You talk, I'm going make coffee. I ordered you a Coke with the pizza since we only have water and coffee."

"Thanks," he told her as she kissed his cheek and made her way into the kitchen.

"Seth, hey," he said into the phone, completely aware that Rory was listening to his side of the conversation.

"_She ordered you a drink? Colin and Finn said you took off with some girl for the weekend?"_

"Seth."

"_They also said you've been spending a lot of time with her, and only her. What's going on Huntz?"_

"I'm not exactly sure, to be honest."

"_Is she listening to you?"_

"I would assume."

"_She seems nice. Finn was declaring his love for her when I talked to him."_

"She is very nice, and I'll make sure to tell Finn to keep his love for my girl to himself," he said and smiled when he heard the small gasp from the kitchen at his possessive pronoun.

"_Your girl?"_

"So what do you need?"

"_Be that way, I was just trying to get some information. No one knows what you three are up to. But we really need to plan this Costa Rica trip. Are you three going to meet us there?"_

"I really am not going to plan anything this weekend. Who else is planning it with you?"

"_Well it was supposed to be you three, me, and Robert. So I guess it's just me and Robert."_

"Why don't you two take a trip down to New Orleans, anytime you can make it, and we'll help plan. That way you get a weekend away and the event gets planned? But I gotta go, man. I promised Ace a weekend away from everything and I'm talking about Yale stuff."

"_Who's Ace? _

"The girl that Finn loves, are you going to come down here any time soon?"

"_We'll think about it, maybe next weekend we'll meet up with you down there. Do we need to make hotel reservations?"_

"Hold on. Hey Ace," he called out and laughed when she jumped.

"Yea?"

"Can Steph stay at your house next weekend?"

"Sure, of course. We have an extra room. Why?"

"Later," he stated. "Seth? You can stay with us. We'll put Steph with the girls and you can take her room. Robert can take the couch."

"_Okay, we'll work it out and get back to you with flight information."_

"Good. I'll talk to you then."

---

They had eaten dinner, talked, and watched movies the rest of the night. After the first two movies, she had asked if he was okay with moving up to her room in case she fell asleep. They were watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but he was more focused on how she fit into his side. He had his hand wrapped around her and his thumb was rubbing circles on her hipbone, where her shirt had ridden up. He couldn't help but notice her entire body freeze up when he had first slipped his thumb under her shirt, but he was relieved when she relaxed. He was beginning to realize that Rory was insecure, that she didn't know how she affected him. He wasn't sure what she thought, but he knew that he wanted her. Constantly. He hadn't brought it up, but he spent the entire night thinking about what he thought was a slip of the tongue. Did he really want her to be _his_, like he told Seth? It was a laughable idea, but he couldn't find anything funny about it. He actually thought her **not** being his was funnier. It just seemed like there was no one else that she could be with, there was no possible way that she fit better with someone than she fit with him.

Rolling over, he propped himself up on his elbows and settled in between her legs. Her face was surprised but she moved her arms around his neck, allowing him to kiss her.

"I told Seth something today that I've never said before," he noted, trying to breach the subject that he'd been thinking about.

"Yea? What's that?"

"Well," he began slowly, "I've never really been a possessive person, and today I told Seth that something was mine."

"You never did tell me who Seth is, or why Steph has to stay at the house next weekend."

"And I'll explain it all to you in a few minutes."

"Okay, thanks."

"So."

"So…"

"I told Seth that something was mine today."

"So I've heard."

"You heard me refer to someone as _my girl_ today, too. I wanted to know what your thoughts on that were."

"Calling someone your girl? You can call anyone anything you want, I'm pretty sure."

"Yea, I guess I could, but what if I were to refer to you as my girl? What would you think about that?" he asked and pushed her hair off of her forehead. He could tell that she knew this was coming, but he couldn't tell what she was thinking.

"Ace?" he asked after a few minutes. "Any thoughts at all?"

"I don't know, Logan."

"Okay. That's not quite the answer I wanted, but what don't you know?"

"I just don't know why you would want that. I'm not exactly like all those other girls you usually hang out with. Steph told me, I know. So I'm just not sure."

"You and Steph, huh? I'm going to have to ask her to refrain from telling you anymore stories about me. Ace, there's no other girls."

"Don't tell me that when I know it's not what you do, Logan. I know that you don't commit to people."

"Ace, listen," he started and watched her eyes flutter closed as he kissed along her jaw. "There are no other girls. There's only you, and you're all I want."

"For now," she agreed.

"For the foreseeable future," he challenged.

"You're leaving."

"Not for a few months," he stated and moved his efforts to her neck.

"But still…soon. And…going…Logan."

"Hm?"

"Logan, stop."

"Why?

"I can't think with you doing that," she gasped and pulled his head up to look at him.

He smirked and leaned down to kiss her, whispering against her lips, "Good to know, but that's what I was going for."

She could get lost in him if she allowed herself, and it wasn't as hard as she would have once imagined. She wanted to. She was in her favorite place on the planet with a boy. A boy who was currently making all conscious thought fly out of her head. A boy she could see herself doing anything with, be it reading a book in bed or riding jet skis. A boy who, she was quite positive, would take her anywhere she wanted to go at any time. She was sure that if she told him to stop right this instant, he would stop and never say anything about it. Did she want him to stop?

"Logan," she mumbled, pushing on his shoulders. She pushed him until he was on his back and she was lying with her chin on his chest. She was grateful that he knew she had something to say, she could tell he would give her time to get her thoughts out. That was another thing she liked about him, he knew when to push and when to hang back.

"There's really no other girls?"

"None."

"And you're sure this is what you want?"

"I haven't been with anyone but you since our first date. This is what I want, you are what I want."

"And what about when you have to go home?"

"We'll figure that out if and when we get to that point. It's March, and you've got me through August."

"Yea?"

"Yea."

"Okay and what about—"

"Relax, Ace, we'll figure it out."

"I'm just…not like all those other girls, Logan. I haven't…well, I just don't...I'm just not like them."

"Oh. Are you a virgin? Is that the problem?" he asked and laughed at her face.

"No! That's not the problem. I'm not."

"So you've have sex. Good," he laughed even harder at the blush that colored her face. "Rory, Ace, I plan on sticking around. If you don't want to have sex with me right now, that's fine. But I don't understand the problem, you're not a virgin?"

"No," she said.

"So you've had sex."

"A few times," she shrugged and blushed some more.

"Oh, I know. It was so bad you've taken a vow not to ever try it again."

"Logan, no! Can we please stop talking about this?"

"Just trying to figure out the problem. I ask and you shrug, that indicates ambivalence meaning that you don't have feelings one way or the other on the subject."

"Welcome back Mr. Webster, I thought you left a long time ago."

"So it was bad sex."

"Stop saying that word. And it was fine."

"Fine? I'd hate to be that guy. When we have sex it's going to be better than fine."

"Logan."

"I'm just saying, when it happens with us, you won't be using the word 'fine'."

"I'm going to sleep," she said rolling off of him.

"Okay, okay, I'm done, come back. I know you're not like those girls; I like that, a lot. What's the real problem."

"It's stupid," he heard her mumble

"Ace," he pulled her back onto his chest.

"I've never actually spent the night with a guy. Besides Jack," she groaned and buried her head in his chest.

"Rory, that's just not true."

"What do you mean that's not true? I think I would know."

"The night of the extravaganza you woke up on top of me, I _really_ enjoyed it. It's one of my best memories."

"Okay, funny boy, I'll rephrase. I've never spent the night with a guy when I was sober. Except Jack."

"Okay, Jack doesn't count. I've never spent the night with a girl, besides Steph and you. So I think we're even."

"I guess."

"You want me to leave, Ace? I saw at least 4 doors in the hallway, one of them has to be a guest bedroom."

"No!"

"So you're just a little freaked out?"

"Sorry," she said with a half smile.

"Not a problem. Why are you so freaked? You're the one with all the relationship experience, shouldn't you be…well, not freaked out?"

"I don't know. I'm finished with my freak out, promise."

"Don't promise things you can't keep, Ace. You can freak out as much as you want, as long as I still have you at the end of the freak out."

"Okay, I think I can at least promise that."

"Good, now get some sleep. I saw some pictures of you on a boat that I assume is outside that I want to take out tomorrow," he told her before kissing her head and turning off the TV.

**AN: Hi. I don't think I like this chapter. I'm actually not sure if I still like this story. If yall could let me know what yall think, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks. :]**


	17. Save Me a Dance

**AN: So this time was less of a wait, I hope you like that. I'm really not doing anything yet this summer (I need a job), so hopefully I'll be writing more. Let me know if you like this chapter, please. :] & Thank you so much to all of yall who reviewed. It makes my day. Here yall go, enjoy. **

She woke up a few hours later and had no clue why. Rolling over, she saw her cell phone blinking on the nightstand. She was waiting for her mom to call; she knew that the call was coming. She grabbed the phone and tried to open it under the comforter so Logan wouldn't wake up because of the light. Yep, four missed calls, all from her mom. She untangled herself from Logan carefully so he wouldn't wake up and tiptoed into her bathroom. She turned on her vanity light and called her mom back. It was 2:37 in the morning and her mom was in either Paris or Vienna, but she didn't know the time difference. She was pretty sure that it was morning wherever her parents were that particular day.

"_Hello?"_

"Mom, hey. You called?"

"_Hey kid. I hear you and Blondie took a little trip. Your dad wasn't sure if he should give John Halpin the address."_

"Really? What made him change his mind?"

"_Jack said that he trusted Logan, and that he thought a weekend away would be good for you. You know your dad can't say no to anything that's good for you. Or something that's not if you want it."_

"Well tell him I said thanks, I'm so excited. Logan got lost and he had a blindfold on me so he was cursing to himself and he finally took the blindfold off of me and I had to laugh because he had gotten us all the way back by the Millet's house."

"_I'm going to forget I heard anything about a blindfold because that's a little too kinky for me to know you're doing. I thought he was putting it in his GPS system?"_

"He said it didn't work."

"_So is that all that happened? Has he gotten you to talk about your situation yet?"_

"Yea, I think we're dating. "

"_Dating, dating? Or just kind of dating?"_

"He told his friend that I was 'his girl' today. So I guess we're dating dating. Like real dating."

"_And is that a good thing?"_

"I don't think I've really decided," she admitted as she heard the bathroom door creak open. She looked up to see Logan leaning on the doorframe watching her through half-lidded eyes. She smiled at him and held up a finger, indicating she would be off in a minute.

"_Ror? Where'd you go?"_

"Sorry, mom, but I woke Logan up. It's late here, I'm gonna go. I'll call you later, okay?"

"_Oh, calling you back to bed, is he?"_

"Stop."

"_Geez, you're cranky. Call me later, love you."_

"I am not cranky. I love you too."

"_Goodni—"_

"Mom! Wait! Where are yall right now?"

"_Paris. We leave for Vienna in a few hours."_

"Okay, I'll call you later," she promised and ended the call on her phone. "Sorry I woke you up," she told Logan.

"You didn't. I think that I subconsciously realized I was alone and woke up. I was just wondering where you went."

"My mom called like four times. Sorry," she apologized again and he just held out his hand to her.

"Not a problem, just come back to bed," he said and waited for him to nod and take his hand.

"Good idea, Huntzberger."

"Just go to sleep, Ace."

She nodded her head again and situated herself under her sheets and comforter. She wasn't sure how she should do this. Sure, when she woke up she had been pressed against his side with their legs tangled, but she didn't think they went to sleep like that. Not sure if he wanted her in his personal space, she stayed on her side of the bed and rolled onto her side to face away from him.

She was playing a game of word association and trying to go to sleep when she felt him run his hand up her back and under her shoulder. Once he got his hand underneath her, he curled his arm back towards him and tucked her easily into his side.

"There," he murmured into her hair, "I like you much better here."

" 'Night, Logan," she whispered when she felt him kiss her hair.

---

He woke up for the second—technically third—time that morning and was confused. He had woken up a few hours earlier when Rory, once again, threw a leg over his hip and snuggled into his side. When he realized she was not waking up, he went back to sleep, but now, Rory was nowhere to be found, his sweatshirt was missing from the desk chair it was on last night, and the sun was beating in through the windows.

He made his way downstairs and saw Rory standing in his sweatshirt with the doors to the refrigerator and freezer open. He had to admit that he liked her in his sweatshirt. However, he liked waking up with her next to him in bed more, and he was going to make sure that happened as much as possible.

"I bring you here to relax with me for the weekend, and I've now woken up twice in the past 8 hours with you not next to me. What's up with that, Ace?"

"Don't pretend to be upset. I tried to wake you up, but you sleep like the dead," she informed him and closed the refrigerator.

"Yea?"

"Mhmm. I tried to wake you up, but you just groaned and tried to pull me on top of you."

"And you didn't let me?"

"I was hungry. Still am, actually. We haven't been here in a few months so we have no food," she stated with a pout.

"I see. Well, it's a little past 10 right now," he said as he checked his watch, "why don't you get dressed and I'll take you to brunch."

"Can we go to the grocery after?"

"Anything you want, Ace. Go get dressed."

---

They had gone to brunch at a little café and she had convinced him to let her get groceries for later. He had laughed at her when she asked him what he wanted for dinner.

"_What do you mean what do I want for dinner?"_

"_Well, we're here buying groceries. What are you going to want to eat tonight?"_

"_I thought we were just getting snacks and stuff, things that we can eat in addition to the take-out we'd be ordering."_

"_Why would you think that?"_

"_Because everyone says you can't cook. I can grill but am worthless inside a kitchen."_

"_I haven't been best friends with Kinley for years and not picked up something. She just is the one who cooks. I can make edible food for us, and we do have a grill. So I ask again, what do you want for dinner?"_

They had spent the rest of the day on the boat in the bay. It was her favorite time to be in the boat; barely anyone was out on the bay and it was still cool. Her dad had just recently restored a sailboat and Logan was dying for her to let him take it out the following day, but she wasn't sure. She was sure that they were safer on the boat with the engine. He had laughed and assured her he was an experienced sailor when she voiced her opinion. She had told him that he must use a liberal definition of the word sailor.

The two of them had lounged on the boat all day, with her legs in his lap, an ice chest full of drinks, and a bag full of snacks. She didn't bring up their conversation from the previous night. Things were different in the morning, sometimes. She wasn't sure if now that he had a chance to think, he was regretting his words and decisions. She did know, however, that she was finished trying to convince herself that she didn't like him. It just wasn't working, and she didn't want it to work. She liked him. She liked Logan Huntzberger, and that was okay.

He was outside grilling steaks at the moment. After their conversation in the grocery store, he had agreed to let her cook part of a meal for them. She was making potatoes au gratin and corn and laughing at their situation, it was so normal. She didn't even like corn, but she was making it for him. He wanted mashed potatoes, but she preferred au gratin. He didn't know about that yet, but he'd just have to deal with it.

"_You need help out here?" she had asked him. He looked up at her and frowned. _

"_What are you doing? Get inside!"_

"_Why?"_

"_Because I'm the man, Rory! I don't need help to grill the food! Just get your cute little butt inside and make some mashed potatoes and corn," he had explained like it was the most logical thing ever._

"_I don't even like corn," she told him._

"_You don't?"_

"_Not a bit."_

"_Will you still make it?"_

"_Why?"_

"_Because it's my favorite side dish; I could eat it with anything."_

"_Is it really?"_

"_I promise it is."_

"_Okay, fine, but bring the food inside when you're done. I don't want to eat outside."_

She was brought back to the present when his hands landed on her shoulders and he planted a kiss on her cheek.

"How are those potatoes coming, Ace?"

"They're good," she said turning around to face him. "They're in the oven, but they'll be done in five minutes or so."

"So we've got five minutes?"

"About

"Perfect," he confirmed and pushed her back into the counter.

He kissed her slowly, different than he had before. He took his time and let his hands run up her sides and into her hair. When he felt her pull him flush against her body he began placing smaller kisses on her mouth, cheeks, and jaw, allowing her to catch her breath.

"You know, I'm kind of liking this dating thing," he said against her cheek.

"Are you?"

"I would like anything that lets me kiss you anytime I feel like it."

"Well I'm glad you like it, but I have to get the potatoes out. Grab the bowl on the counter, I'll be there in a minute."

* * *

It had been almost a week since that weekend at Rory's bay house, as she called it. He was very proud of himself. He knew what he wanted, addressed the situation, and worked it out in his favor. He told her that there weren't other girls and that there wouldn't be for the foreseeable future, and he was right. He had gone out with Finn and Colin twice since they got home on Sunday night, and other girls held absolutely no appeal for him. This weekend, he was assuming, would be a little more stressful. Robert and Seth were sitting on the runway in the plane, waiting to be let off, and with them there, Rory would get a better idea of his life at Yale. Sure, Steph had told her some things, but Stephanie was so set on them dating that she toned it down. Seth may not realize he should, and Robert wouldn't pay him that courtesy if he did.

All four of us had gone to the airport to pick up Seth and Robert. Their flight got in at 1:15 and we made plans to take them to lunch once they got here. The first thing Robert did, however, was complain that he was drinking water, and Seth tried to wring out his shirt. _'It's humid, we know,'_ Steph had told them and then rushed them into the car because she was starving. She was hanging out with Rory and her friends too much if she was always starving like this.

They had dropped Steph off at the girl's house earlier and were finally making their way to the house. He was throwing his keys on the front table when he heard someone whistle and a noise that sounded like someone being hit in the stomach. That caught his attention, there was nothing whistle-worthy in their house unless you counted Stephanie, and he didn't.

Walking into the living room, the first thing he saw was Rory sitting on their sofa with her books and notes surrounding her. She had a pen in her mouth, one stuck through her ponytail, and multiple hi-liters scattered in front of her. Colin and Finn had continued on with their conversation, but Robert and Seth were leaning against the wall watching her study.

Laughing, he went towards her and jumped over the back of the sofa, landing amidst all of her papers. Her face was so shocked that he had to laugh at her again,

"Logan! Hey!" she exclaimed and leaned over to kiss him. When she did this, he was reminded that Robert and Seth were here when they both groaned.

"What're you doing here, Ace?"

"Oh. Crap. I'm so sorry, I meant to leave before yall got back. Steph was supposed to text me," she rambled.

"No big deal, you can be here anytime you want," he reassured her and watched as blush colored her cheeks.

"Is this your date for the weekend, Huntz?"

"Ass," he said under his breath and turned to Robert. "Nah, this would be my girlfriend, Rory Hayden. Ace, this is Robert, and Seth."

"Girlfriend, huh? I'm sure."

"Don't be an ass, Robert. Love, where are the other lovely ladies?"

"Uh, I'm not sure. Jack was doing a group project at the house and I needed to get this paper finished. I really was going to make sure I left before yall got back."

"We dropped Steph off at your house," Colin informed her.

"Oh well that's fine. Someone should be there, and if not she knows where the key is."

"Lucky her. Are you girls coming out with us tonight?"

"Um, I don't know. I think I'm going to go, finish my conclusion for my paper. I'm sure I'll talk to you three," she said with a nod towards Logan, Finn, and Colin, "later, and it was really nice to meet you two. I hope yall have a good time this weekend." She gathered up her stuff and made her way out of the living room when Logan caught her.

"Ace, wait. What's up? You don't have to leave, stay."

"No, it's alright. I'm gonna go, you stay here with your friends. Call me later?"

"I'll call you anytime you want. Now come here and kiss me before you leave."

"Pushy, pushy," she mumbled into his mouth.

"So you'll come out with us tonight?" he asked again.

"Go hang out with the guys. I think I can get my paper finished in about an hour, so if you still want us girls with yall tonight, call me. It's okay if you don't, though."

"I'm sure we will. Plan on being ready around 8. Tell the other girls, and invite John Halpin."

"Will do," she confirmed and kissed him one last time.

"Bye, Ace."

* * *

Robert had been an ass the entire afternoon. He was continuously bringing up girls Logan had dated at Yale, and he was almost certain that his tongue would only get looser after a few drinks. He really did not want Rory hearing some of the things Robert was saying, but he wasn't stupid, she could find out if she wanted. Maybe if she saw how much of a jerk Robert was, she wouldn't take his words as seriously as she would take Stephanie's. Not that the chance of her hearing something she didn't like was going to keep him from inviting her with them. He had gotten used to seeing her, talking to her, and hanging out with her this past week, and he was determined not to let _Robert_ stop him from being with her.

They had arranged with Stephanie for everyone to meet at the restaurant, but of course the girls were running late. John Halpin had called Logan after he talked to Rory, and had been with the guys for the rest of the afternoon. He was really starting to get along with John Halpin. Logan was pretty sure that Jack didn't like him at first, probably because he figured out that he liked Rory on the first day they met. Any guy that liked Steph would have to prove himself to Logan, so he understood that it was the same way with Rory and jack. But he was hoping that since Jack was accepting him, Rory was more comfortable with him too.

He heard them before he saw them. Well, he heard them being greeted by several people who were eating across the restaurant, and when he looked over at the group, he found nothing that he liked. He turned around to ask John Halpin who the guys were, but he was already making his way across the room to tell them hello. It was a weird feeling for him. Normally he would be laughing because the guys were all flirting with Stephanie, and he still was finding that humorous, but the guys flirting with Rory was anything but funny.

He saw her look around the restaurant and was able to relax when she met his gaze and smiled brightly at him. He nodded his head towards his table, winked at her, and laughed as she blushed and held up one finger.

"So you really have a girlfriend?" he heard someone ask. He looked back at the table and saw Seth giving him a curious look.

"Yea. We only started dating a week or so ago, though, so it's still new."

"And you're okay with that?"

"I was the one who brought it up, actually."

"Come off it, Huntz," Robert interrupted. "We all know you don't date girls because you like them. She's got to be good."

"Don't say that."

"Don't say what?" Rory asked as she sat down and found his hand under the table.

"Nothing, Ace. So do those guys go to Tulane?"

"Who? Oh! No, they go to LSU. They're just in town for the weekend."

"Oh, cool. So how do you three know them, and why is Steph still over there with John Halpin?"

"They used to go to school with Jack, and Patrick—dark curly hair—asked Steph a question when we walked up and they've been talking ever since."

"That's just great. Steph finding a guy she likes down here is the last thing we need."

"What exactly does that mean?"

"Nothing, Ror. It's just that—"

"Rory Hayden, how are you?" he heard someone call out, and the next thing he knew she was out of the booth and in the arms of some other guy.

That was the way the rest of the night went. They joined the group of guys Rory and Jack knew, and moved into a back room in the restaurant since their group was getting extremely large. After that they went to some club where Rory spent the night dancing with other guys. He figured that Rory heard what he said about Steph and thought he would think the same thing about their relationship, but he didn't. He didn't know how to explain that to her, and she wasn't trying to figure it out either. And he was sulking, he knew he was sulking. Finn and Colin knew he was sulking. Hell, even Robert knew he was sulking. What made it even worse was that he had an idea that Rory was trying to stay away because everytime she was next to him, Robert would bring up some other girls. It was really starting to piss him off.

He did enjoy the glances Rory threw to him as she danced with other men, because he knew she was thinking of him and wanted to be dancing with him, at least on some level. She had been drinking since they got to the club, and he was just watching her. He liked how she was after a few drinks—it was how she acted when they were in Bay St. Louis, completely untouched by anything. There were no papers or articles to write and no exams to study for. Around 2:30 he saw her tell her friends that she would be back and walk towards him. She sat down next to him and placed her hand on his thigh and gave it a playful squeeze. He felt his eyes widen in shock and looked down at her to see her giving him a lazy smile.

"Hey Rory."

"So," she leaned up to whisper in his ear, "are you sleeping at my house tonight?"

"I don't know, Ace. You've been dancing with all these other guys, I would hate to crush their dreams," he joked with her. Inside, he was soaring. She wasn't usually forward enough to ask him back to her house. She usually invited him to hang out with her and never hinted at him to leave.

"Yea right, Logan. "

"Yea right? What's that mean? Are you just teasing them?"

"I don't know, but don't pretend that you didn't know I'd be leaving with you."

"You planned on leaving with me? I like that."

"So will you stay with me tonight?"

"Will you save me a dance?"

"Any dance you want."

"Why don't you come get me before you want to leave. You can give me the last dance of the night and then we'll head home, okay?"

"Deal," she agreed with a perfunctory kiss on his cheek.


	18. Official

She was sitting at her desk trying to ignore Logan as he lounged on her bed. He had spent the night with her Friday night, but when she woke up she was only left with a note on the pillow he had been sleeping on.

_Ace,_

_I have to deal with Robert and Seth. We're helping plan an outing for some of our Yale friends. I don't know when I'll be available, but I'll give you a call later._

_-Logan._

That's all she heard from him until Monday morning. She figured that he had been having fun with his Yale friends, but she waited around all weekend and she felt pathetic. So when he finally sent her a text message during her classes she had ignored it. When he showed up at the newspaper office asking her to go to lunch with him she was ready to forget about it all, until he refused to tell her why he ignored her all weekend. So they had picked up poboys and ate them while she supplied one-word answers to his questions. He dropped her off at the house and followed her inside. She was pretty sure that he was trying to figure out a way to make her talk. She also knew that she was tired of ignoring him already. She had missed him this weekend and she didn't like that almost as much as she didn't like being ignored.

"When did you put this picture up?" she heard him ask. That certainly wasn't the way she imagined him beginning their conversation. Sighing, she turned around in her desk chair and was forced to get up when she saw he had the picture frame in his hands.

"What picture?"

"I got more than a single word!"

"Which picture, Logan?"

"This one," he said as he handed her the frame. When she saw which picture he was referring to, she was forced to look down as she blushed. It was a picture that Kinley had taken at the Endymion Extravaganza. It was a picture of the two of the dancing. Her head was on his chest and he was looking down at her and smiling. She had really liked the picture and had hung it up as soon as she thought it was appropriate.

"Um...a few weeks ago."

"Yea? I like it," he stated and took it back from her to hang back on the wall. She walked back to her desk and went back to ignoring him as he looked at her pictures.

"You still mad at me?"

"Of course I'm not mad. There's nothing to be mad about."

"Ace, don't be like this."

"Like what? Like my whatever he is to me left without telling me bye on Saturday morning? Like he didn't call me back Saturday night after I left him a voicemail? Like he ignored me all weekend and showed up to see me on Monday acting like it's normal? If it's normal for you to ignore me for a weekend, I'm not sure I want to be around you."

"Okay, I get it. Not calling you was bad."

"It's not bad if that's what you want."

"If what's what I want?"

"If you don't want to talk to me, then it's okay for you not to call me all weekend."

"Of course I want to talk to you, Ace. I've been wanting to talk to you since I left Saturday morning. I really didn't think I wouldn't talk to you, but the guys, Steph, and me planned stuff all day Saturday and then my dad called me. I spent the rest of the weekend either drunk or sleeping off a hangover and I didn't think it would be good to call you when I was hung over."

"What were yall planning?"

"I told you, that's the one thing I really can't tell you. It's Yale stuff, you wouldn't want to know anyway."

"So you think it's not interesting to me what my boy type person planned all day Saturday and then forced him to get so drunk that he was hungover the entire next day?"

"Well technically, the planning wasn't what did that. Talking to my dad for the first time in months was the cause for the drinking."

"Your dad?"

"My dad."

"What did he want?"

"He wanted to tell me that he heard that I was dating Richard's granddaughter while I was gallivanting around New Orleans," he deadpanned.

"Excuse me?"

"My reaction exactly.

"Wait, go back. What do you mean your dad heard that you were dating Richard's granddaughter? Richard as in Richard Gilmore? Richard Gilmore as in my grandpa?"

"I'm pretty sure it's all the same man, yes."

"How did your dad hear that? My grandparents don't—wait, the news that your dad knew we were dating made you get so drunk that you couldn't even call me? Wow. Sorry, I never knew it was such a bad thing to date me."

"You know that's not it, Rory."

"No I don't. I don't know anything. You didn't tell me anything, remember? For all I knew, you could have hopped on a flight and headed home."

"Ace, come here," he requested while he got settled on her bed.

"I'm good here, thanks."

"Come on, I just want to talk to you. I don't want you to be mad at me. Just come sit with me, please."

"Fine," she muttered and made her way over to him.

"Okay, now listen to me. Being with you does not make me feel like I need to get plastered. You understand?" he asked and waited until she nodded her head. "I didn't call you Saturday because my dad called me right when we were finishing up our planning—"

"And you still aren't going to tell me what you're planning?"

"I'm sure you could come up with a few ways to convince me to share that information, " he told her with a wink. "But I'd prefer you take mercy on me."

"Yea, sure."

"You have no clue what you do to me, and maybe that's a good thing for the time being."

"Okay, back to m grandpa and your dad. How'd that happen?"

"Okay, well I'll tell you the exact conversation.

---

"Huntzberger."

"_How's New Orleans, Logan?"_

"Dad?"

"_You've always been a quick one. So I hear that you've met the St. Martins."_

"Yes, we had dinner with their family a month or so ago. The son is actually a friend of some friends we've made."

"_Ah, yes, your friends. He told me that you've been dating Richard's granddaughter."_

"Excuse me?"

"_Richard Gilmore. I believe you're seeing his granddaughter. Is that not true?"_

"How did you figure that out?"

"_Well I talked to Tripp St. Martin earlier today and it seems you've ruffled his son's feathers. His son had his eyes set on your little girlfriend. Tripp thought it was very funny."_

"Dad, what's the point of this phone call?"

"_The only point I have to make, Logan, is that it's ridiculous for you to think I don't know everything you do. I have newspapers and reporters in nearly every corner of the globe. Everything you do, I catch wind of, so don't do anything too idiotic down there."_

---

"Wow. Geez, that's not fun."

"Talking to my dad is never fun, Ace. So I had to deal with the fact that my dad knows that I'm dating you-not that it's a bad thing, it's not, that he knows exactly where I am, and he apparently knows everything I do. I can't ever just get away and I hate it."

"Well you still could have told me this."

"I always end up having a few drinks after I talk to my dad, but the guys took me to The Boot and we got carried away. Robert was making comments about you and I was already in a bad mood. I would have been a complete ass and you don't deserve that. I didn't want to be that guy."

"Okay. I guess I can see that, but seriously, a text message would have been great. I was starting to get worried something had happened."

"Yea?"

"Well we hadn't heard from yall since Friday night, and Steph had been with us all day Sunday."

"You know, I kinda like that," he informed her as he ran his fingers through her hair.

"You're weird. You like that I hadn't heard from you since Friday night?"

"No, I like that you, my pretty girl, was worried about me. I think the only two girls who have ever been worried about me are Steph and Honor."

"Honor? Who's Honor?"

"I haven't told you about Honor? She's my sister, the only family I actually like."

"Well what does she do? Is she in Hartford? Does she know about us?"

"She graduated from Yale a few years ago with a degree in Art History. She's an assistant curator at a small museum in Boston, but mostly she travels and tries to secure art for the museum. And when you ask if she knows about us, what exactly do you mean?"

"Oh. Nothing, I didn't mean to assume or anything, just…you know."

"You want to know if she knows about my breathtakingly beautiful girlfriend?" he asked with a smile. His smile only grew when he saw her face turn a brilliant red and couldn't help but laugh when she tried to bury her face in his shirt.

"Ace, look at me," he requested when she still hadn't responded after a good five minutes. He laughed at her again when she brought her eyes to meet his.

"I think that I want you to be my girlfriend, Ace."

"You think?"

"I've never wanted that before, so I can't be completely positive, but since I've never felt this way about a girl before that's what I've decided," he stated.

She cocked her head to the side to look at him and started laughing. She continued to laugh as she fell into his side and he repositioned them to lay down on her bed. He waited until she collected herself slightly before shooting her a questioning glare.

"Okay, I know this is a serious talk. I know."

"Yet you're still laughing. Ace, I just told you something important and you laughed at me. Talk about a hit to my ego."

"Oh, your ego will survive. But it's just the way you said it. _'That's what I decided'._ I like that you just decided how you feel, it makes me laugh."

"I'll have you know that once I decide something, it usually happens."

"Okay, I'm serious now. Okay. So talk to me, you called me your girlfriend. I know we kind of implied things when we were in Bay St. Louis, but this is real. You really want that?"

"I'm not exactly sure what I want, besides you being around all the time, but I know what I don't want. I don't want to hear about you going out with anyone that's not me. I don't want you to debate with another guy which era of literature is best. I don't want you to be having movie nights with anyone besides me. But most of all, I don't want-no, I can't stop seeing you. That would be my version of hell," he stated and watched her nod her head a few times.

"Alright, I see. You know that sometimes I have to debate eras of literature with other guys in my classes, right?"

"That so wasn't the main topic."

"Yea, I know, and I agree with you. I want all those same things. I think it just kind of scares me."

"Wanna tell me why?"

"I don't know…it's just that my last relationship ended badly. There were horrible screaming fights and me crying myself to sleep almost every night for weeks. I really thought I loved him, but I don't know anymore. When you kiss me, I can't even think and there are times when all I want to do is stay here in my bed with you. It just scares me because you're leaving, so I'm essentially setting myself up for a lot of pain," she confessed to him and then kept quiet. She watched his digest everything she had said and felt him pull her on top of him. He allowed her to settle herself between his legs and pushed her bangs off of her forehead before he said anything. When he finally did speak, she was taken aback by what he said.

"I want to hit that guy, you don't even know. My hand is burning because I need to punch him, to shove him into a wall and inflict on him so much pain he can't even stand up. I'm not a violent person, but it physically hurt me just now to hear you describe what he put you through, Ace," he said and kissed her quickly. "As for everything else, I know what you mean. You think this doesn't scare the hell out of me? I come down to New Orleans for some fun and I meet a girl I can't stop thinking about, a girl I don't want to stop thinking about, a girl who I can't imagine not being in my life. So all I can tell you is that we've got another few months and I can't see my feelings for you changing. I can't see myself heading back to Yale in the fall without knowing I can call you everyday. Of course, we don't know what's going to happen, but I have a private plane that I can hop on. At anytime, really, as long as my dad's not using it."

"So…"

"We'll deal with it all later."

"Alright. That's fine with me."

"So I can introduce you as my girlfriend, correct?"

"Well that depends."

"On what?"

"Are you busy on Wednesday?"

"You being my girlfriend hinders on my plans for Wednesday?"

"If you plans prohibit you from taking me to the concert, yes."

"I'll take you anywhere you want to go, Ace. So, no, I'm not busy on Wednesday. I have a date with my girlfriend."

**AN: Hi, again! I meant to update this last week, but I was in Baton Rouge watching my Tigers play baseball. I tried my hardest to get this written and updated before I head back up to BR for the Super Regional. We're playing Rice, GEAUX TIGERS! :] It's somewhat rushed, but a few people had told me they wanted Rory to figure out that they were really dating. And I've got to say that the only reason I brought up the Wednesday concert is because I went to Wednesdays At The Square last night. I hope yall liked it, but I'd appreciate feedback, no matter.**


	19. Chicken Parmesan, Cooking, and Honor

Logan was ridiculously happy. It had been almost a month since he and Rory had defined their relationship and settled into a very comfortable situation. He was excited about the next few weeks, though. He had talked to his sister earlier and she was coming down for the weekend and he was looking forward to introducing her and Rory. He was fairly certain that he would be seeing less and less of Rory in the upcoming months because of her upcoming finals, but since Colin, Finn, and Steph had gone to the beach for the rest of the week, he was planning on getting Rory to stay at their house with him.

When Honor called him, he had been in the grocery store trying to decide what to cook for dinner for Rory and himself. She had beaten him down until he finally broke and told her everything that had been going on. He was a little uneasy telling her about his life in the middle of "the grocery", as Rory called it, no store at the end and no store name. He figured that everyone who could hear him was listening in and finding out everything about his life. Honor had practically screeched when he murmured the word 'girlfriend' and had demanded to know everything about her. Instead of trying to tell her everything that had happened since they had gotten to New Orleans, he invited her to fly down and meet Rory. They could all go to dinner, he remembered telling her. Honor had seemed content with that, said she would ask Josh about it, and get back to him. He foolishly thought he would get off without telling her anything, but Honor badgered him until she knew everything from Rory's middle name to Rory's view on salad.

Once he got off the phone with Honor, he was able to focus on his ideas for the night. It had really been a routine for him to show up at the girls' house for dinner. John Halpin was there sometimes. Some days he would show up and see Colin or Finn sitting and laughing on the bar stools. Steph was usually there, as she had nearly moved in with the girls. She went out to lunch with Kinley and Addie, and she gossiped about girls she didn't know over Sunday brunch with all three of them. They would all talk and laugh while they ate dinner and then Rory, Kinley, and Addie would clean up. They would never let anyone help them, no matter how many times the help was offered. _'Yall are our guests,' _Addie had told them, _'we can clean up for ourselves'_. The first time that he had eaten dinner with them, Kinley had made chicken parmesan and Rory had wished for an entire week after that she knew how to make it. Remembering that, his menu was set and he called Kinley to arrange a quick tutoring session and to find out what he would need.

He showed up at their house, laden with bags, around 1:30 in the afternoon, ready for Kinley to teach him how to make chicken parmesan. Once he was certain that Rory's car was not parked anywhere within two blocks of their house, on either side of the street, he made his way inside with his grocery bags.

"Oh geez, what did you buy, Logan?" he heard Addie ask as he was trying to put the chicken in their refrigerator for the time being.

"Well, I called Kinley to get ingredients that I would need. She said I could take some of you ladies' garlic if I wanted to, but she also gave me a list of three specific cheeses I would need. Did you know that they have a lot of different brands of cheese? Why would they possibly make more than one?"

"So what did you buy?"

"One of each brand for each kind of cheese I needed, of course."

"Oh man. Kinley! Get down here," she yelled up the stairs as she shook her head at Logan."

"Okay, okay, I'm here. Okay, you," she said, pointing at Logan, "wash your hands. Ad, I figured since I had to show him how to do it, I would just make that for us, is that fine?"

"Fine with me, just hide it from Rory until they leave. I've got a test tomorrow, so I'm going study. Yell if you need anything and make sure yall say bye before you leave, Logan."

"We will."

"Okay," Kinley started, "do you know how to take the fat off a chicken breast?"

He wasn't sure what his face looked like, but it was effective in letting her know that he had no clue how to do anything of the sort. She stopped asking him if he knew what to do after that, thankfully, and just went ahead and showed him. He had to admit, she was extremely thoughtful. She had separated the chicken into two groups, instead of doing it all at once, so he would be able to watch her prepare everything a second time. After both sets of chicken were in the oven and he had assured her he knew how to set a timer, she turned to him and smirked.

"So, I think I'm entitled to know exactly what your intentions are with my best friend, now don't you agree?"

He groaned and had to agree with her. She had just taken close to an hour out of her day to help him with what he hoped to be a romantic date for him and Rory. He had a bottle of win and had passed by her favorite ice cream store to buy her a Café Au Lait sundae. Not to mention the frozen cappuccino that the owner had reminded him of as he was walking out the door. Everyone was helping him today, and he hadn't actually ever discussed Rory with anyone. He supposed it was Kinley's right as the best friend and roommate to wonder what he was doing.

"I like her, Kinley," he finally admitted. "I like her quite a bit. You know…I told my sister about her today. I invited Honor—that's my sister—to dinner this weekend to meet Rory. You think she'll stop studying for a night?"

He had never been nervous about a girl before, but he was absolutely petrified that Rory wouldn't actually want to meet Honor. She was the closest he had to a caring family and if Rory didn't want to meet her, he wouldn't know what to do. He would be disappointed, oddly enough. He wanted them to meet, he wanted them to get along. Hell, he'd even put up with them chatting constantly and making plans to go shopping if that meant Rory was comfortable with Honor and what she represented.

"Yoohoo, Logan," he heard Kinley sing-song as he snapped out of his thoughts. He looked up to see her smiling at him and answered her unasked question.

"I want them to like each other."

"Aw, come on. You know that Rory likes everybody."

"Yea, I know. But I want her to like Honor like she likes you and Addie. Or Steph. Not that I want to take her away from you girls, but I really want her to like my sister."

"I'm sure they'll love each other. But I'm glad that you're as serious about her as she is about you. I don't know what yall are going to do when you go back to Hartford, but I think it'll work itself out.

"Yea we will, I think. I hope. Damn it, we've got another few months until that happens. We're not thinking about that right now, okay?"

"Yes, sir. Now, do you need me to pack a bag for Rory or can you be trusted to go upstairs and pack one yourself?"

"I'll do it," he told her. "Do you know when she's going to be home?"

"Yea, she texted me and said she'd be home in an hour…half an hour ago. So you've got half an hour."

"Thanks."

He had a secret. He loved her room because of all her pictures. He loved it even more than he initially did because there were several pictures of him that now adorned her wall. It made him happy, like his presence would be there even when he wasn't, which wasn't often. She caught him staring at pictures frequently, and she would tease him about it, but he had never told her that he enjoyed seeing pictures of them on her walls. He made a point to ask questions about certain pictures because the explanations he received were usually quite insane. He was lost in his own world when he felt someone place their hands on his hips and then slide them around his stomach. He felt a strong sense of contentment engulf him as he felt her place a kiss on his cheek and settle her chin on his shoulder.

"What're you looking at?" she whispered in his ear.

"Have I ever told you that I love looking at your pictures? Because I do. What's the story behind this one? Is this from high school?" he asked and waited for her to nod. "Okay, so a random high school event for Rory, Kinley, Addie, and other girls I don't know. Why are you all dressed like nerds?"

"Okay…well this girl right here," she started by pointing at someone in the picture, "her name is Olivia. We're friends with her, but she didn't go to high school with us. Her mom, and aunts, and sisters all went to school in Metairie so she didn't have a choice. Her school has this thing once a year between the girl school and their brother school. Each school has a theme for the year and there are seven games that they play. Varsity volleyball, JV volleyball, 4 legged race, switch 'em up, bottle ping-pong, hippity hop, and the egg toss. At the end of the night, whichever school wins 4 events wins the whole Challege. The winning school's E-board gets to shove whipped cream pies in the faces of the E-board of the other school. This particular year, Olivia got us tickets and we went. Their theme for the year was "Raiders Get Schooled", so we dressed up as nerds."

"Oh I have so many questions about what you just explained."

"Well ask away."

"So I get volleyball, but what are the other games?"

"Ah, okay," she laughed. "Okay, the 4-legged race is just that. It's just like a 3-legged race, except it has 3 people. Surprisingly the girls won all 4 years we were in high school. Switch 'em up is a relay race of 6 people on each team. They run to the other side of the basketball court where 6 uniforms are on the floor, 3 from the girls 'school and 3 from the boys' school. If they're putting on the girl's uniform then it's a skirt, a blouse, and a sweater. If it's the guy's uniform, it's their blue uniform pants, oxford shirt, and letterman jacket."

"And the guys put on the girl's skirts?"

"Yea, it's always funny because the boys try to button the skirt in front, not on the side. I think I heard that they took that game out because the boys were complaining that the girls would cheat."

"Well yea! It's not like we know how to put on a skirt."

"Hah, I know. Bottle ping pong is just when you run across the gym with an empty 2 liter coke bottle with a ping pong ball balanced on top. If it drops, you have to go back to the beginning, and when you get to the next person you have to transfer the ping pong ball from your 2 liter to theirs without using your hands. The girls always win that game. We think it's because they always pick the dancers and they're more graceful when they run."

"Naturally."

"Hush. Hippity hop is those big ball things that have a handle and you bounce across the gym, there and back, before you give it to the next person on the team. Egg toss is just that, an egg toss. The boys always win that, of course."

"Wow. That is possibly the most useless event I've ever heard of."

"Hey!"

"I didn't say that I didn't sound like a lot of fun. Just that whoever came up with that is crazy."

"Oh, please. You know you wish you could have been there."

"You know," he trailed off as he turned around to finally face her. When he saw what she was wearing, he had to chuckle. The first time he saw the shirt she was wearing he was close to pinning her against the wall and having his way with her. It was one of those baseball type shirts with navy blue sleeves even though the front and back of the shirt were white. The front of the shirt was simple and read '_The Tulane Hullabaloo'_, but the back is what made his breath catch in his throat. She had walked away from him, into the kitchen, if he remembered correctly, and he was able to see that the back of the shirt said _'We put out on Fridays'_.

"What?"

"Well, for starters, I love that shirt," he stated and watched as she blushed and rolled her eyes, "but what I was going to say is that these skirts are definitely longer than I always envisioned the plaid, Catholic school girl skirts."

"Yea, well all those Catholic school girl uniform clichés everyone talks about aren't true. Or at least they aren't true around here. We had to be able to kneel on our skirts. They were real cute, obviously."

"So when you say that uniform clichés aren't true, do you mean to say that everything else they say is true?"

"Shut up. Anyway, I'm starving, are you staying for dinner?"

"Nope, and you're not either."

"What do you mean I'm not? I'm so hungry."

"Well then we better get going. We're cooking tonight."

"We don't cook, Logan. Kinley cooks. She cooks very well, and it smells really good so let's just eat here."

"Oh no ma'am. I learned how to cook today so I could teach you how to cook something. I've got ice cream and wine and I've packed your clothes. I have the house all to myself, will you please come stay with me for a few days?"

"Don't you dare call me ma'am again. Where did Colin, Finn, and Steph go?"

"Colin likes casinos, Steph likes the beach, and Finn likes staying in hotels. They heard about Biloxi. They'll be there for a few days. Please, Ace."

"Yea, that's fine. What did you learn how to cook?"

"Chicken parmesan."

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

"Logan! Thank you!" she screeched as she launched herself into his chest, pushing him against the wall, and kissing him.

"Finally," he told her when she pulled away. "That conversation went on far too long without you kissing me. Never make me wait that long again, alright Ace?" he asked her jokingly.

"Whatever, Huntzberger. You could have kissed me; no one would have stopped you. But let's get going if we still have to cook, I'm so hungry."

"Let's go feed you, Ror. Are you free this Saturday?"

"I think I could pencil you in, if that's what you want."

"Come to dinner with me?"

"Like a date?"

He couldn't help but chuckle at her. They stayed in a lot. Most of the time she was studying at her desk and he was lounging across her bed. Other times she would lounge with him and let his hands roam her body as they watched TV. He did make it a habit to join her at her family's Friday night outing, but they rarely went out just the two of them. He liked that she wanted to go on dates with him, even if she was a homebody and would rather stay in. He would make it a point to take her out more if she got so excited over the prospect of going on a date with him. He did hate to burst her bubble, though. He was almost positive that their dinner Saturday night would not be romantic at all, not with his sister and her boyfriend at the same table.

"I love that you're so excited about a date with me, Ace," he told her and leaned in to place a chaste kiss on her mouth. "However, not quite."

"Oh, is everyone else coming?"

"Not exactly, just two people."

"Colin and Finn? Logan, I already told you, they're your friends. I love them both dearly, but I'm not going to go out with yall when they want to hang out with just you, I take too much of your time already."

"Ace, no. Please, Colin and Finn could care less that I'm not at the house more. I like your house better, I like your room better, and I most definitely enjoy being in your bed with you much more than being in mine by myself. But no, not Colin or Finn. I talked to my sister today."

"Your sister. Honor, right?"

"Ah, you remembered. Smart and pretty, I sure did get lucky."

"Don't mock me, mister. So you talked to Honor..."

"And I may have mentioned the word girlfriend and after he subsequent freak out, I may have invited her and her boyfriend down to New Orleans. I also may have told her that us four could have dinner. She wants to meet you."

"So, let me get this straight. Your sister and her boyfriend, are they serious?"

"He's got a ring, but he's terrified of asking my dad if he can propose. He is insisting that he needs to ask my dad for Honor's hand before he asks Honor for her damn hand, for some reason. If I were him and I had to ask my dad for permission to marry Honor, I wouldn't do it, I'd just propose on my own. And this just got weird, I'm imagining situations where I would propose to Honor. But yes, they're serious."

"Okay," she laughed. "So your sister and her almost fiancé are going to fly down to New Orleans from Boston?" she stated and looked to him to make sure she had the location correct. When he nodded she continued, "From Boston, to have dinner with you and me?"

"You've got it, Ace."

"So how long will they be here?"

"They'll probably get in Saturday and leave Sunday. They're really only coming for dinner and to meet you."

"Wow, no pressure."

"No pressure at all, Ace. But please will you come?"

"Wow, um, yea, okay. I guess that's fair. You know my parents. Hell, you know pretty much everyone that's important in my life. I know Colin, Finn, and Stephanie. Goodness, I need to catch up," she added the last part to herself.

"You'll meet them all, Rory. Good. You're going to love Honor. I love Honor, Honor loves me, Honor will love you. I know it."

"Okay. Where are we going eat?"

"You and food, Ace. Let's get you home so we can cook and hang out."

"That is the best idea I've heard all day."

He laughed again and picked up the duffel bag he had by his feet. He had purposely forgotten clothes for her to sleep in, and knew she'd have to wear his clothes to bed. While they hadn't slept together, they had come pretty close. He wasn't going to push her into anything, but he'd always loved when girls wore his clothes. He figured that as his girlfriend she should wear his clothes more often and he would see to it that she did. Looking around her room once more, he realized that she had put a new picture frame on her desk and from what he could tell it was of them two. He'd have to investigate that one later. The only thing he knew at the moment was that he loved being in her pictures.

**AN: Hi! You'll never guess what I'm doing right now. I'm sitting in the passenger side of my roommates SUV. We're taking a road trip to Omaha, Nebraska. We left Thursday around 8 p.m. and we're driving until we get there. I'll post this once I get a chance. Hopefully our hotel has wireless internet. Anyway, I'll be watching my LSU Tigers play in the College World Series for the next week and a half (hopefully). I'm not planning on leaving until June 25****th**** or so, so I don't think you can expect any updates while I'm not at home. I would still love for the feedback, however. Oh, and the story in this chapter is 100% true. I put the links for some pictures on my profile and you can see pictures from a couple Challenges I went to. We're pretty cute, I've got to say. Have a good day, and GEAUX TIGERS! :]**


	20. Here's Honor

**AN: So sorry about the wait. I spent two of the most amazing weeks of my life in Omaha, NE. And yes, I am aware how much Logan hates Omaha. I find it funny. Anyway, our boys won it all, national champions! GEAUX TIGERS. **

"Thanks for picking us up, Steph."

"Oh, please. As long as I get to be there, I'm happy. How are you doing, Josh?"

"I'm alright, I just hate flying. I was prepared to leave tomorrow but Honor just had to come stalk her little brother."

"Josh! I am not stalking him. I just know that he's going to be really prepared for us tomorrow; it'll be a show. He'll tell the girl how to act on the way to the airport. If I'm here tonight, I get to see how they really are, isn't that right, Steph?"

"Sorry, but she's right Josh. Let's get you two to the hotel."

Stephanie had been beyond excited when Logan called her earlier in the week to tell her that Honor was coming visit for a night. She was disappointed, however, when he told her that Honor was only coming in to have dinner with him and Rory. When she called Honor to convince her to get to New Orleans a day earlier, Honor had answered the phone asking if she would have someone to pick her and Josh up if they arrived a day early. The only problem Stephanie had encountered in planning to pick them up for their early arrival was finding an excuse that allowed her to be alone for a few hours. That was difficult. Logan and Rory were the easiest to convince, she remembered…

"_Steph! You're home! Come on, let's go get something to eat," Rory had exclaimed as soon as she walked into the house._

"_Oh, I would love to, but I wanted to find somewhere I could tan."_

"_Didn't you just get back from the beach?" Rory had asked. Woops. Crap. Forgot._

"_Oh yea, but you know how Colin and Finn can be. All they wanted to do was gamble and apparently I'm lucky. I almost never left the tables."_

"_Okay, well did you want someone to go tan with you? I don't tan, but I'll come sit."_

"_Ace, you're ditching me for one of my best friends. Steph, you're stealing my girlfriend. Stop it."_

"_Logan Huntzberger, you do not own her. However, I do feel bad that I came interrupt your plans, so go on as scheduled. I'll go talk to Kinley and Addie, see if they want to come."_

"_Okay," Rory agreed slowly, "but only if you're sure."_

"_I'm positive. Go make out with your boyfriend."_

"_Hey!_

"_Brilliant idea, Steph. Let's go, Ror."_

_Steph had laughed at Rory when she turned red as Logan pulled her up the stairs and into her room. They were cute, and Honor was going to love Rory. After dealing with Rory and Logan, she found Kinley and Addie in the kitchen and explained the whole plan to them. She had a feeling that the girls would help her figure out how to avoid Rory's Friday Night Dinner. She had been explaining all of this when Jack walked in. He listened to the dilemma, pulled out the phone and called Rory's mom. Steph had always known that Lorelai was amazing, but realized it again when she laughed and asked them to take pictures. _

"So what's our plan?"

"Well, I told Rory's best friends that you two were flying down early, so they're helping us out. Kinley is going to cook dinner, Addie is renting a bunch of movies, and Jack is in charge of getting Colin and Finn to agree to a movie night. They shouldn't be too much trouble, there will be alcohol and pretty girls."

"Logan is going to be okay with staying in for a movie night?" Josh asked.

"Logan is okay with anything as long as it involves Rory within arms length."

"Really?"

"Mhmm."

"Wow, my baby brother is weird in New Orleans."

"I'm kind of hoping he'll continue to be weird once we get back to New Haven," Steph admitted.

"You think he'll do a long distance thing?"

"I hope so. He really likes Rory. I love Rory, you're going to love Rory."

"Okay, wow. Well tell me about her."

"Well you know she's Emily Gilmore's granddaughter, right?"

"No! He didn't tell me that! I thought he said her last name was Hayden?"

"Her mom and dad got married when she was 5 or so, I think. His last name is Hayden, but she refers to herself as a Gilmore girl. Her mom is a kick, too bad you won't meet her tonight."

"So she's a Gilmore and not at Yale?"

"Honor, deal with her family later, we'll just figure out if she's good for Logan from how they act. Who she is isn't really important," Josh interrupted.

"Yea, okay. So tell me about her friends."

---

She had taken Honor and Josh to their hotel and showed them what was on the few blocks that were surrounding the hotel. They had a drink on their way back to the hotel and were hanging out when Kinley called asking where they were. Kinley told them to just walk in because they decided to eat outside in the backyard and no one would be inside.

When they walked into the house, Stephanie held out an arm to signal for Honor and Josh to stop. Stepping out of the foyer and into the living room, they could see Rory and Logan with their backs to them in the kitchen.

"Come on, Rory, let's just go back upstairs. No one will care if we're not down here."

"Logan, no. We're hanging out with your friends tonight. You haven't seen Colin or Finn all week and I feel bad."

"Ace."

"Is my brother whining?" Honor whispered to Stephanie.

"Yea, shh," she answered with a finger over her lips. She turned to see Honor's wide eyes and Josh roll his eyes.

"Logan, it'll be fine. We were by ourselves this afternoon. I missed Steph, and I can't believe—Logan, stop," they heard Rory say and looked up to see Logan kissing her neck and mumble something.

"Logan, I can't carry these drinks outside if you're kissing my neck like that."

"Can you walk upstairs?"

"I'm walking outside. All we have to do is put in a few hours, babe."

"Babe?" Honor mouthed to Stephanie only to be met with shrugged shoulders. They turned back around to watch Logan stop and look at Rory.

"Babe?" he asked and Honor suppressed a chuckle.

"I don't know," Rory said slowly. "No?"

"I kinda like it," he told her before he pushed her up against the counter and kissed her.

"Okay, that's enough! I'm not watching them make out," Honor declared. Logan froze and turned around to stare at the three extra people he didn't know were in the living room.

They watched as Logan looked from Rory to Honor and eventually untangled himself from Rory and cleared his throat.

"Honor, hey. I thought you were coming in tomorrow?"

"I was, but Stephanie called and I decided I wanted to come up a day early."

"You could have told me, I would have picked you up."

"No, that's okay. I had my reasons for letting Steph pick me up."

"I see," Logan said. Stephanie couldn't help but laugh. It was awkward, and Logan and Honor were never awkward. She was almost certain that this wasn't the first time that Logan had been caught with a girl by Honor, and she couldn't figure out why this meeting was so weird. Finally, Josh cleared his throat and walked over to Logan.

"Hey Logan, it's good to see you again," he greeted him, sticking his hand out to shake Logan's. That seemed to get his attention.

"Josh! Hey man! You still treating my sister good, right? I wouldn't want to have to hit you."

"Logan, stop that," Honor scolded and Rory laughed.

"Oh, Steph! Kinley was showing me the dress you ordered today and said you didn't know what shoes you would wear with it," Rory stated.

"Yea, I don't know if I want something a bit strappy or if I just want some pumps."

"Okay, well I think I have the perfect shoes for you. Logan, you and Josh go out back and send the girls up. We'll be down in a little while."

"Ace, come on. Come outside, let's go eat."

"Bye, Logan," she laughed and leaned up to kiss his cheek. "Steph, Honor, let's go."

Once they were safely upstairs with the door closed and laughing at the way Logan was muttering while they left him in the kitchen, Honor had a chance to examine Rory for the first time. Sitting on her bed, waiting for the other girls to get upstairs, Honor realized that Logan hadn't introduced her to his girlfriend and decided to fix that.

"So, Logan didn't introduce us, but I'm Honor."

"Yea, I figured, I'm Rory. Sorry about earlier, we wouldn't have been making out in the kitchen if we knew you were on your way."

"Oh, please," Steph scoffed.

"Stephanie. No, Honor, really, we wouldn't have been—" Rory tried to explain but was cut off when Kinley and Addie came bouncing into the room.

"What's up ladies? Honor?" Kinley asked and kept talking when Honor gave a nod, "Hi, I'm Kinley and this is Addie. What's Rory denying?"

"She told Honor that her and Logan wouldn't be kissing in the kitchen if they had known she was on her way over."

"Yea, right, Ror," Addie interjected.

"Guys, please," Rory pleaded.

"No, it's okay," Honor laughed. "That's precisely why I surprised you guys. I wanted to see how you were without being warned about me tomorrow."

"Oh, well then you definitely showed up at the right time," Kinley stated. "We've been watching them ever since they met, so we have all kinds of information for you."

"Now that is what I'm talking about."

---

Honor had left the house hours ago. How did he know? He had been staring at Rory's ridiculous clock for the past 2 hours. Something was on her mind, he could tell. She had untangled her legs and arms from his 38 minutes ago and had been tossing and turning ever since. Not that she had been peaceful when she was tucked in next to him. No, he was almost certain he was going to have a bruise on his hip where she accidentally elbowed him. He was also quite positive that she was still awake. Pathetic. He was lying in bed at 4:29 a.m. with his stunningly beautiful girlfriend. They were both awake and he was staring at a clock shaped like an 'L'. He had never realized just how funny her clock was. When he asked her why it was an 'L', she had looked at him as if he had six heads. _'Because my name starts with an L. Duh.' _ She had actually said the word 'duh'. As if it was the most foreign concept to her, that anyone would find it weird for her to have an 'L' clock. No one called her Lorelai, and when he pointed that out, she had shrugged and stated that it was still her name. She was funny. _And she's awake_, his mind reminded him. Rolling over, he found that she was turned away from him. Probably looking out of her window, he figured. She did that when something was bothering her.

Sighing, he moved towards her and threw an arm over her waist and pulled her towards him. She tensed initially, but immediately relaxed into his chest and moved her arm to lay over his.

"What's wrong, Ace?" he whispered as he laid a kiss below her ear. He stayed there and focused on how her hair still smelled like flowers, even though she washed it in the afternoon.

"I want your sister to like me, Logan," she said very softly.

"She does."

"I know, she told she did."

"I don't see the problem, Ace. If you want her to like you and she told you she does, why aren't we asleep? Or at least making better use of our awakeness."

"Awakeness?"

"It's 4:30 in the morning, Ror, I can say awakeness if I want."

"Okay, I'll give you that. Awakeness is an acceptable word in the early morning hours."

"Thank you. Now, if we're not going to put said awakeness to good use, you should at least tell me what's going on in your pretty head."

"You're so corny sometimes, Huntzberger," she stated and sighed. When she realized he was waiting on her to talk, she rolled over and snuggled into his chest. "I want her to know that I really like you, you know? I mean, she left my house and you stayed. She was up here laying around with all of us in my room, on my bed, and now she knows that you're here. I want her to know that I'm in it for you," she said with a poke to his chest.

"Ace, she knows. I wouldn't have told her about you if you weren't. I promise you she knows. Okay?"

"Okay," she confirmed after a pause.

"Why didn't you just tell me this when we got up here? I've been staring at your clock trying to figure out what was going on in your head."

"Well, I also didn't want to be a clingy, needy girlfriend. Did you know that one time in high school, I went out to eat with some friends of mine, and when we got back into the car, this guy had like 10 missed calls, 20 text messages and a voicemail for every missed call. His girlfriend had almost had a breakdown because she couldn't get in touch with him. He had forgotten his phone in the car. The voicemails were hilarious, she kept on saying things like _'Sean! You must be dead, because there's no other reason for you not to answer your phone. Are you dead?'_. They were so funny, but I've made myself a promise that I would never be like that."

By the time she finished her story he couldn't control his laughter. He was pretty sure that she had left out some aspects of the story from the way she was laughing. It was funny, but she was crying just thinking about it. She was constantly making his days brighter, funnier, better, and he was going to make sure she knew it.

"Rory Hayden, you are anything but a clingy, needy girlfriend. I almost wish you needed me more, sometimes."

Her eyes popped open and he chuckled at her reaction. She pushed on his shoulder until he was lying on his back and positioned herself to lie on top of him before she spoke again.

"Yea?"

"Sometimes," he answered as he twirled a piece of her hair.

"Well," she started before she kissed him. "What would you say if I told you I needed you right now?"

He knew what she meant; he had been actively _needing_ her since the morning after the Extravaganza when he woke up with her drape across him. He had never really believed in any sort of religion, but he said a quick prayer to anyone who might be up there that Rory wasn't kidding. If she was kidding, he would have to spend some quality time in the bathroom getting reacquainted with his hand after she fell asleep.

**AN2: I'm not so sure about this, but it's what it is. I expect to get yall another chapter in either the beginning or middle of next week. I hope yall have a good holiday weekend. Happy 4****th**** of July. Be safe & have fun! :]**


	21. Bliss

**AN: So…hi. I'm real real sorry that I haven't updated all summer, I really am. Last I told yall, my girls and I had taken a road trip. It was only supposed to last 2 weeks, but we decided to make it longer…so I was driving around the Eastern half of the U.S. for a while. When I got back to NOLA, I got offered this great job that caused me almost constant migraines, but an amazing experience. Now, I'm back in Baton Rouge and getting settled in for my junior year at LSU. I should be able to update more regularly now…I hope.**

**So here's the next installment, I hope yall like it. I am happy that some of yall messaged/commented to ask if I was still writing. **

Absolute bliss.

It was the only description he could come up with when he woke up. Logan had only been asleep for a few hours and he needed to go back to bed, but before he fell back asleep he took notice the brown curls that were splayed over his chest. Rory. Rory had given him the opportunity to worship every inch of her body the night before, and he took the opportunity. More than once. Today was going to be an amazing day, Logan was sure of it. He was having lunch with the only family I'd ever cared about, and the only girl that he would ever want to introduce to his family. It was an important day, and he knew that Rory was aware of that. While Logan wasn't quite sure what thoughts she had going on in her head, he would put money on her being nervous.

He was also aware that people were awake in the house. There was the soft murmuring of female voices; Kinley and Addie deciding if they should wake Rory up, I figured. He was really hoping that they wouldn't. Even though he was completely sated, his body was in a state of amazing soreness, and he wanted Rory to wake up on her own, not because of a rude intrusion on our perfect morning.

When Logan woke up for the second time that morning, it was not as pleasant. He opened his eye in time to see the door opening slowly and a blonde head slipping into the opening. What made it worse was that he knew that blonde head very well.

"Honor, stop," he whispered. "Give me two minutes and I'll talk to you in the hall."

For the first time in his collective memory, his sister did exactly as he asked and left without a word. Sighing, he squeezed Rory closer to him for a second, dropped a kiss on her head, and whispered a promise that he'd be back soon to her sleeping form. Finding his boxers on the floor, he pulled them on and realized that more than anything he wanted to go back to sleep.

When he got into the hall, he saw his delightful sister nearly bouncing up and down with happiness.

"Good morning to you too, Honor," he whispered. Rory was still sleeping, and if he had it his way would stay asleep until he could get back to her.

"Morning!? Logan, it's a little after 1."

"After 1? You're lying. It can't be," he argued.

"Well check you watch."

Sure enough, when he looked down at the watch on his wrist it told him that it was indeed 1:12. How had they managed to sleep so late? He was one thing, but Rory could never sleep past 9:30 or 10:00.

"Okay," he sighed. "Give us an hour and we'll go for a late lunch. If you're hungry, I'm sure there's leftover food downstairs that you can eat."

All he wanted to do was to get back to Rory, but Honor was studying him like he was some sort os extinct animal; with wonder and awe. He didn't know what her problem was.

"What?"

"I was just wondering what's going on," she tried to explain. "I've never seen you so adamant about leaving a girl to sleep or trying to get back to her before she wakes up. And I've never been kicked out of your room before I could tell you something. It's not like I would have seen anything, Logan."

Well, crap. She sounded kind of upset. Like she thought that everything was changing because he was with Rory.

"Honor…" he started.

"No, it's okay," she interrupted. "I understand that things are different when you're here, but I didn't think that you wouldn't be being yourself."

"I just wanted to have a morning with my girl, Honor. I'm not trying to be different or rude to you."

"Well you had yesterday morning with her, and I'm sure you'll have tomorrow morning, it's not everyday that you spend time with your lovely sister."

He let out an aggravated sigh. He was going to have to explain this to her, and he really didn't want to. How are you supposed to tell your older sister than she was going to walk in and talk to him the morning after he made love to his girlfriend for the first time? And if that wasn't weird enough, he now how to process why the hell he just thought that him and Ace made love last night instead of just having sex. What a morning.

"This morning is kind of a big deal, Honor. We never…well…we've never woken up together…_like that_…before. You know?" he explained as he felt his face heat up.

"Are you blushing?"

"No."

"You are! Logan! Was last night the first night that you two…you know?"

"Shh…Honor, Rory already didn't like the idea of you knowing I slept here last night, please don't let her know that you know that we…you know…last night."

Brilliant, Logan. You can't even bring yourself to say the words 'had sex' because they feel wrong, so now you're stuck looking like a blubbering idiot. When Ace is still in bed, naked.

"Wait. Why doesn't she want me to know you slept here?"

"I don't know," he stated. If he thought his face was red enough, it was only getting worse. "She said something about wanting you to know that she wasn't with me for…that. That she was here, you know, for me," he said quietly and rubbed the back of his neck. Yea, this conversation wasn't embarrassing at all.

Instead of the snickering and laughter he expected, Logan felt Honor through her arms around his neck and hug him fiercely.

"Uh, Honor?"

"I'm so happy for you, baby brother," she whispered into his neck and his heart swelled. She was happy for him. No matter what Rory did for the rest of time, Honor would adore her, he was sure of that.

"Thanks, I'm happy for me too."

"Okay," she pulled away. "It's 1:20 now, let's plan to leave around three. Go get back to your girlfriend, wake her up and have your morning," she said with a slight look of uneasiness. It wasn't easy for Honor to talk to him about having a girl in his bed…or him being in a girl's bed, he supposed. "I really do like Rory, Logan. I think she's great."

"Thanks," he told her and turned to the door. "I really like her, too."

When he got back into the room, he froze. Rory had moved. She was now laying on her stomach with her left arm stretched over the empty space where he should have been. He could see her forehead wrinkled in confusion has her arm moved around slowly. She was searching for him, he realized, and the thought made him even happier. The part that made him the happiest, however, was that her blankets were sitting around her waist and her entire back was bare for him to see. She was beautiful. The most beautiful women he'd ever had in his bed before, he was sure of it.

He moved quickly. Sliding back into the bed, he pulled her arm over his chest and sighed when she moved closer to him.

"Where'd you go?" she asked softly, her voice still raspy from sleep.

"Sorry I woke you up, Honor was outside and wanted to talk to me."

" "Sokay," she mumbled and tried to bury her head into his chest.

He would happily stay like that for the rest of the day, but he had to suppress a laugh when he heard her stomach grumbling with hunger.

"Ace, baby, we've got to get up soon," he said into her hair.

"I'm good here," she mumbled and he smiled into her hair.

"I'm really glad that you're good here because I plan to have you here for a long time, but Honor and Josh are downstairs and it's almost 1:30."

He laughed when he felt her entire body freeze and he watched as she turned her head up to look at him.

"Excuse me, but I thought you just said it's almost 1:30. That can't be right."

"Yea, it's almost 1:30, Ace. You've got to get your cute little butt up and take a shower while I go downstairs and keep everyone company," he told her but she wasn't listening anymore. She had grabbed the comforter off of the bed and wrapped it around herself and taken off to her closet. When she came out she threw a towel and a washcloth at him and told him to go take a shower down the hall.

Grabbing her waist, he stopped her and pulled her towards him. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and rested his head on top of hers.

"Ace, slow down. Honor said that we would leave around 3, you've got time."

"When did she say that?"

"When she came up here a few minutes ago."

"Wait. Did Honor see you like this?" she motioned to him.

"Like what?"

"Just…well, just in your boxers," she whispered and he laughed.

"Baby, Honor's seen me in less than my underwear, she said it scarred her for life."

"But she saw you coming out of my room in nothing but your underwear?" she continued to question.

"Yea, she did. It's not a big deal, Ace. She's not going to say anything to you, and all she said to me was that she was happy for us. We'll talk about it tonight, okay?" he clarified. When she nodded her head he kissed her, grabbed the bathroom stuff, and walked out the door.

* * *

"So where are we going?" he heard Honor ask Rory as he closed the car door. Running around the car, he caught the tail end of her response.

"—call, and since we're not really dressed up I thought we might go there."

"Sounds like a plan," Honor responded as Logan settled into the driver's seat. Picking up Rory's hand, he kissed the back of it before twining their fingers together and placing them on her thigh.

"So where are we off to, Ace?"

"You remember that place we ate a few weeks ago, Port of Call? There," she told him as he nodded.

Pulling out of the parking spot and into the street, Logan couldn't contain his smile when he felt Rory twist around in her seat to talk to his sister. He stayed quiet through most of the ride, only responding when Rory would squeeze his hand and ask him, "what do you think, babe?". He had never had a pet name, nor had he allowed any girl speak to him with terms of endearment. But as he was being reminded almost constantly now, Rory was not just any other girl.

No, she was definitely not just another girl. She was a girl who was laughing and joking with his sister and sister's boyfriend.

He had realized the previous night that Rory was friends with his sister now. They were going to exchange phone numbers and they would text each other. Honor would want Rory to visit her frequently, because that's how Honor is, and while he was kind of freaked out about her becoming more entwined in his life, he was happy Honor got to meet her. He wanted everyone to know Rory. Except for his parents. And the majority of his friends, but he'd figure out how to accomplish that when he was back at Yale.

"Hey, you okay?" he heard as he felt his hand being squeezed.

He had to smile when he looked around and saw Rory looking at him. Honor and Josh must have gotten out of the car when he parked, but Rory looked so concerned. Pulling her in, he smiled against her temple before kissing her.

"I'm perfectly fine, Ace. You having fun? Honor's not too much, is she?"

"Logan, no! I love her, I really do. She's so sweet and her and Josh are going to get married so I hope you like him, but I think she likes me as a friend, not just as some girl who's dating her brother."

"Calm down, Ror. She does like you, and you aren't just some girl that's dating her brother. You're the only girl that's ever dated her brother."

"I know," she said as her cheeks blushed. "I kind of like that."

"Yea?"

"Mhmm, but let's go in. I'm starving," she said as she leaned over to kiss his cheek. The next thing he knew, she was out of the car and chatting with Honor. Getting out of the car, he saw Josh shake his head, presumably at whatever the girls were saying, and roll his eyes for Logan to see.

"Welcome to the insane, man," Josh said as he walked up.

"Why?"

"You couldn't have picked a more perfect girl for Honor to get along with, Logan. Honor absolutely loves her and pretty much wants to kidnap her and bring her home with us."

"Oh."

"Come on, boys, we're going in," Honor said before linking her arm through Rory's to walk into the restaurant.

"It's going to be a long weekend, isn't it?"

"Sure is, but she's your sister, tell her to stop when she gets out of hand."

"My sister? Your girlfriend!"

"Sister beats girlfriend when you're telling them to shut up. She has to like you. She can dump me and force me to spend thousands coming out of depression."

They day had continued on with light banter and stories of growing up from everyone at the table. Logan learned more about Josh in that afternoon than he had in the previous two years, and he loved hearing about Rory growing up.

He was beginning to notice how Rory and Josh had bonded immediately over their knowledge of Huntzberger traits and were comparing notes. When Rory mentioned that her one of her favorite things that Logan did was twirl her hair, Josh and Honor erupted in laughter. Apparently, Honor had forced Josh to grow his hair longer so she could twirl it around her fingers.

After eating lunch, Rory insisted on going sit up on the levee. She explained that it was one of her favorite things to do when she was in high school, and declared that it was a perfect day outside. When Rory grabbed Josh by the arm to race up the levee and compare notes, Honor wrapped an arm around Logan's and slowed them down.

"You're not going to leave without telling her goodbye and never see her again, are you?" Honor asked him quietly.

"What? No! Why would you think that?"

"I don't know…you've never done the whole relationship thing before, and now you're going to be doing a long distance one?"

"Honor. It's not even summer yet, much less August when I have to head home. Rory and I may break up before then," he told her as he felt his heart give a squeeze at the thought.

"I'm sure. I just don't want you to screw this up. You're so happy with her…I'd like to see you like that more."

"She does make me happy," he admitted with a sigh.

"Good!"

"Yeah. She makes me really happy, Honor. I don't know what I'd be doing if I hadn't met her. Would I be screwing around with every blonde in New Orleans? God, I don't even see how that was remotely interesting to me a few months ago. She makes me crazy, that girl."

"She does. I like it. Let's go see what they're talking about," she told him and pulled him up the levee.

The rest of the weekend had flown by and was an amazing success. Honor and Rory seemed to be long lost best friends and Logan knew that once Steph was thrown into the mix, it would be bad. He was finding out that the thought didn't bother him at all; he wanted Rory to feel comfortable with everyone in his life.

Sunday, Honor and Josh had joined them for Mass and Sunday brunch, which Honor found "just adorable". After brunch, Logan had looked over to see Rory, Kinley, Addie, Steph, and Honor crowded around each other and giggling like they were 10 years old. Every now and then one of them would shoot a supposedly covert glance in his direction and Rory would blush light pink. He loved making her blush like that. It had been such a long time since Stephanie would blush, and even longer time for any of the other girls he knew.

You know that saying, a breath of fresh air? Well he was positive that Rory personified it. And now he was a certifiable sap, but at the end of this weekend, he didn't think he minded at all.

* * *

"Get your crap, Hayden, we're going to lunch," Steph ordered while plunking her purse down on the desk.

Confused and slightly startled, Rory pulled out her headphones and looked up to see Steph standing in front of her desk tapping her foot.

"Okaaaaaaay," she began as she packed up her laptop and notebook. "Is there a reason for us going to lunch? Where are we going?"

"I needed to talk to you, and nowhere special."

"Is it okay if we stay on campus? I really need to get this article finished today."

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine."

"Okay, then let's go."

---

"So what's going on, Steph?" Rory asked once they had their food.

"Okay, so it's about next week. You know how we're going to be out of town, but my cousin is coming down a few days. They want to stay at the house, so I just need to know if you can unlock the house on Wednesday and then make sure it's all locked up on Friday afternoon. I know it's like a week and a half from now, but my cousin wanted to make sure before they finalized their plane tickets and everything, you know?"

"Okay, wait," Rory started as she chewed her food slowly. "What do you mean 'we're going to be out of town'? Who's we? And where are yall going?"

"Oh. Shit. Crap, crap, crap. I've got to go, Ror. Um….I'll call you tomorrow,"

"Wait, Steph, hold up. Just tell me. You know I'll find out," she called to her as Steph basically ran out of the dining hall.

"Great, just lovely. There's no way I'm going to get my article finished if I'm wondering about this," Rory mumbled to herself as she speared a piece of chicken from her salad with her fork.

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity, Rory."

Looking up, she was forced to look at Jackson. Great, even better.

"Jackson, I was just leaving, and if that really were the first sign of insanity, my mom and I would have been in the mental ward a long time ago."

She got up, threw her food away, and pulled out her cell phone. Dialing Logan's phone, she couldn't help but smile when he answered.

"Ace! Where are you?"

"I'm going back to the newsroom, I just had to ask you a quick question," she explained.

"Okay. Ask away."

"So I just tried to have lunch with Steph."

"You tried?"

"Yes, I tried, because she told me something about being out of town next week and when I question who was going out of town and for what, she pretty much ran out of the dining hall," she explained and waited for Logan to clue her in to what was going on. It wasn't until she was met with silence that she started freaking out. This was it; it was too much for him. She had become friends with his sister and that had probably pushed him over the edge.

"Okay, nevermind, I've gotta go," she mumbled. She went to hang up her phone, but heard him yelling out to her.

"Ace, no. Listen, have dinner with me tonight."

"We always eat dinner together, Logan. It's okay, I – well, I understand."

"Understand what?"

"It's too much for you, I get it. I just didn't think you would leave without telling me."

"We're not leaving, Rory. Not for good, anyway. I'm just going to be gone for 4 or 5 days. Let me take you to dinner tonight and we'll talk about it."

"Where are you going?"

"Ace, just let me take you to dinner."

"Just tell me where you're going and I'll stop the questions until dinner," she countered.

"Costa Rica," she heard him mumble after a long sigh.

"Costa Rica! You can't go to Costa Rica. Why are you going to Costa Rica?"

"I'll be over this afternoon and we can decide where we're going to eat tonight."

"Logan, no. Talk to me about this now. Why are you going to Central America? That's not a common tourist destination."

"Actually, Costa Rica has a very good tourism industry, but I'll talk to you tonight, Ace. Get your article done, I know you took a lot of time off this weekend to hang out with Honor."

"But Logan—"

"Bye, Ace," she heard him say and then disconnect the call.


End file.
